Unified Consulting Service of the Federal Customs Service of Russia as the basis for customer-oriented administration of customs authorities

Bobrova Anna Vladimirovna ORCID: 0000-0002-9169-8971 Professor; Department of Customs Affairs; South Ural State University (National Research University) Professor; Department of Economics and Management; South Ural University of Technology 76 Lenin Ave., Chelyabinsk, Chelyabinsk region, 454080, Russia / Main building, office 438/2 ms.Bobrova_AV@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Since 2012, one of the main strategic directions for the development of the civil service in Russia has been the improvement of the service system with a targeted focus on consumers of these services. Section 6 "Improvement of the system of public services" (On Approval of the Strategy for the Development of the Customs Service of the Russian Federation until 2020: Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated December 28, 2012 No. 2575-r (as amended and supplemented), hereinafter referred to as Strategy 2020) reflected the relevant tasks to be solved by the customs authorities:

1) improving the quality and accessibility of public services in the field of customs;

2) integration of the unified automated information system of customs authorities into the existing infrastructure for the provision of services and functions in electronic form in order to ensure accessibility and improve the quality of public services in the field of customs;

3) development of a system of indicators, methodological support and a system for monitoring the quality of public services in the field of customs.

However, in 2020, in the new version of the strategy (On approval of the Strategy for the Development of the Customs Service of the Russian Federation until 2030: Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated 05/23/2020 No. 1388-r), only section 9 "Improving the legal support of customs authorities" contains a single phrase about the provision of public services advising on customs matters and other issues related to to the competence of the customs authorities. Based on this provision, we can assume that the tasks assigned to the customs authorities by 2020 have been fully completed. Scientific articles, including those published by officials of the customs authorities themselves, note that all three tasks need to be expanded, clarified and unconditionally fulfilled. Let's consider the problems identified by the authors in more detail, including on the basis of foreign experience.

The paradigm of service- or customer-oriented administration of customs authorities, actively developed by V.V. Makrusev and co-authors ^{[1, 2]}, in practice, is primarily constrained by administrative and legislative barriers. Actually, the term "customs service" is not legally defined, therefore, an effective mechanism for advising customs authorities on participants in foreign economic activity (FEA) cannot be created. S.V. Kurikhin noted the problem of insufficient elaboration of the content of the concept of "customs service", which does not contribute to the development of administrative regulations for new public services ^{[3, p. 78]}, and There is also an excess of the range of services provided by customs authorities with unspecified regulations over their regulatory list ^{[4, p. 49]}. Article 2 "Public service provided by the federal executive authority" (On the organization of the provision of state and municipal services: feder. The law of 27.07.2010 No. 210-FZ (as amended and supplemented) defines a public service as "an activity to implement the functions of a federal executive authority, which is carried out at the request of applicants within the limits of the powers of bodies providing public services established by regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation," the more obvious becomes the need for legislative regulation of the content of the service and the mechanism of its implementation.

S.V. Kurikhin divides actions with information in the framework of the provision of public services into consulting and providing information ^{[3, p. 86]}, which, in our opinion, is the first step in organizing the process of providing consulting services to customs authorities.

R.P. Meshechkina and co-authors, as well as A.J. Desmal and S. Hamid, emphasize that the modern stage of public administration, called "open government", should be based on stable feedback from consumers of public services ^{[5, pp. 11, 6]}. The insufficient effectiveness of such links between R.P. Meshechkin and his co-authors was confirmed by the example of the introduction of the process of dispatching declarations for goods between Electronic Declaration Centers (EED), which became an unexpected measure for participants in foreign economic activity who were not sufficiently informed and received a number of negative consequences in the form of an increase in the time of actual inspection of goods or refusal to accept declarations. These authors propose mathematical models of interaction between participants in foreign economic activity and customs authorities based on the categorization of participants in foreign economic activity according to the degree of risk of their supplies and the likelihood of committing offenses based on the analysis of the behavioral model of their "digital twin" ^{[7, p. 37]}. It is not yet clear to what extent, according to scientific developments, participants in foreign economic activity can be informed about the use of such models to determine the frequency of inspections conducted by customs authorities.

N.G. Lipatova and E.V. Zhereben also link the quality of interaction between customs authorities and participants in foreign economic activity with the consciousness of the latter, suggesting that the number of customs checks should depend on violations by participants in foreign economic activity ^{[8, p. 45]}. At the same time, the authors lay down the principle of an individualized approach to each participant in foreign economic activity. In our opinion, on the contrary, the integrity of participants in foreign economic activity depends on the quality of the services provided by them, the unbiased attitude of customs officials, and the possibility of reducing the costs of participants in foreign economic activity, but it does not increase with increasing coercion. On the other hand, A.A. Maiwada and B. Oshionebo point to the need to motivate and increase the involvement of customs officials in the processes of interaction with foreign trade participants, as employees increasingly assume responsibilities traditionally associated with public relations in the transition from traditional approaches to communication to the development of integrated communication strategies ^{[9, p. 230]}. The system of remuneration, leadership, organizational culture, internal control and management information significantly affects the increase in labor productivity of customs officials through job satisfaction ^{[10, p. 1937]}.

In Russia, as in many countries of the world, a number of measures have been developed to improve the quality of services provided by customs authorities to participants in foreign economic activity. The policy of converting structural posts of customs authorities into functional ones promotes the separation of powers of employees and an increase in the quality of service for participants in foreign economic activity, its efficiency and accuracy ^{[11, p. 2628]}.

Digitalization and intellectualization of the customs sphere is primarily aimed at providing a favorable environment for participants in foreign economic activity. I.V. Grekov and his co-authors express the opinion that information technologies of the customs authorities of the Russian Federation have already become part of the digital economy of the state, ensuring the interaction of participants in foreign economic activity with customs officials ^{[12, p. 458]}. Knowledge management becomes the key to improving the quality of customs services ^[13].

At the same time, these processes give rise to information security problems and disruptions in the work of the Personal Account of the participant of foreign economic Activity on the website of the Federal Customs Service of Russia. In particular, the author of the article, I.A. Aksenov, believes that advising foreign economic activity participants in their Personal Account through the feedback form is significantly outdated ^{[14, pp. 67-69]}. To solve technical issues of information support, the author suggests organizing a technical support hotline on the website of the Federal Customs Service of Russia or launching a chatbot through which you can ask for help and get an answer within 10-15 minutes. To attract foreign trade participants to use personal accounts, the author suggests creating a channel on social networks where current news and statistics will be published ^{[14, p. 70]}. M.A. Argatov and O.Yu. Desyatnichenko propose to completely abandon paper document management in the relations between the customs authority and the participant of foreign economic activity in the process of digitalization of the electronic document management system of the Federal Customs Service of Russia ^{[15, p. 69]}. The idea of full-scale use of chatbots is supported by other authors, arguing this process with typical questions asked by participants in foreign economic activity ^{[16, p. 12]}. At the same time, the authors consider saving the working time of customs officials to be the main advantage of using chatbots. In our opinion, these measures will not help solve the issues of advising foreign trade participants, since they are aimed only at the informational, but not the consulting component of the service. Saving the working time of customs officials should be achieved by transferring the centers of responsibility for consulting from customs offices to regional customs administrations and the management of the Federal Customs Service of Russia.

The digital customs maturity model of the World Customs Organization assumes the formation of an extensive information and communication technology infrastructure ^{[1, p. 66]}, however, the authors T.V. Lobas and V.V. Makrusev cite as an example the level of digitalization of customs offices in China and the United States, but not Russia. N.G. Lipatova believes that the basis for improving relations between participants in foreign economic activity A single automated information system of customs authorities can also become customs authorities ^{[17, p. 104]}, however, in our opinion, the focus of the systematized information accumulated in this system on solving the tasks exclusively of customs authorities is beyond doubt.

The elements of consulting are implemented in the process of electronic declaration ^{[5, p. 9, 18, p. 13, 19, p. 81, 20, p. 42]}, which provides the information necessary for filling out declarations and reflects errors when filling out declarations. The concept of a "single window" for interaction between customs authorities and participants in foreign economic activity ^{[2, p. 127]} is not new in itself, but it does not include mechanisms for high-quality full-scale provision of consulting services to participants in foreign economic activity. The introduction of the "single window" mechanism did not reduce the number of appeals and complaints from participants in foreign economic activity, including due to abuse of official duties in customs authorities ^{[21, p. 35]}. The author, V.V. Silaeva, suggests introducing a system for monitoring appeals and complaints from individuals and participants in foreign economic activity as a basis for developing relations between these individuals and customs authorities. In our opinion, it is necessary to go beyond simply reflecting the state of affairs in this area and address the issue of reducing the number of complaints based on prior consultation on all customs issues.

Despite the large number of innovations in the field of customs services, the focus on a customer-oriented approach and the improvement of services provided by customs and other government agencies, many issues remain unresolved at the moment, including the creation of an effective consultation mechanism for participants in foreign economic relations. We believe that the development of consulting services is hindered, in addition to the legislative, administrative, and technical barriers indicated in the literature review, by the attitude of customs officials and the Federal Customs Service of Russia in general to this function. It manifests itself in four fundamental approaches.

Firstly, it is the identification of the concepts of customs service and customs control by government agencies.

In the 2020 Strategy, one of the main directions for the development of the customs service is defined as "the provision of public services and the implementation of control and supervisory functions", combined in one point and considered comprehensively. Of all the target indicators, positioned as "10 steps towards business" after the release of the 2020 Strategy, only No. 1, 3, 4 (in fact, a single indicator on automatically registered declarations), No. 5, 6 (in fact, a single indicator on automatically issued declarations) and No. 8 "Share of customs payments using a single personal account" are directly related to the activities of the participant in foreign economic activity. However, of what interest to the user of the service may be the indicator No. 2 "The share of CED located on state-owned areas" or No. 7 "The share of automatic risk profiles". Indicators No. 9 "The proportion of shipments with effective risk mitigation measures" and No. 10 "The proportion of crimes detected by Customs authorities" are directly related to the control functions of customs authorities.

Secondly, it is the understanding by the customs authorities of the consultation process as informing the participants of foreign economic activity.

Informing is the process of bringing relevant information to the attention of certain persons, both upon their request and by virtue of official duties. Consulting is a specialist's response to the questions of certain people, advice that allows them to solve their problems. In response to a question from a foreign trade participant, the article and paragraph of the relevant regulatory document are often indicated without a detailed analysis of the situation, which corresponds only to the information process. It is claimed that the website of the Federal Customs Service of Russia contains "comprehensive background information", which casts doubt on the need to provide consulting services.

The absence of differences between the terms consulting and informing is confirmed by the regulatory legal acts of the customs authorities themselves. For example, the Order of the Federal Customs Service of Russia (On Approval of the Administrative Regulations of the Federal Customs Service for the Provision of Public Services for Advising Persons on Customs Matters and Other Matters within the Competence of Customs authorities: Order of the Federal Customs Service of Russia dated 06/11/2021 No. 492, hereinafter referred to as Order No. 492) states that "the result of the public service is the receipt by the applicant of advice on the application of acts regulating customs legal relations".

Thirdly, these are psychological factors of the unwillingness of customs officials to provide services specifically for participants in foreign economic activity.

The fact that services should be provided free of charge in accordance with the 2020 Strategy does not allow customs officials to link their salaries and their official duties with the need to advise participants in foreign economic relations, and even more so, with the quality of these services.

The unwillingness of customs officials to provide services is also reflected in the fact that the mechanism of implementation of the applicable 15 administrative regulations for the provision of public services in customs authorities is not disclosed in detail directly to participants in international relations. Even the order posted on the website of the Federal Customs Service of Russia does not transform into a step-by-step electronic user manual on the website of the customs authorities, but then how to get a high-quality service without being aware of the mechanism of its implementation, which has many cross-references to other regulations and government agencies.

Fourthly, there is a lack of effective indicators for assessing the effectiveness of customs authorities through the quality of services with a direct link between bonuses and these indicators.

The target indicator for section 9 of the 2020 Strategy "The share of participants in foreign economic activity who satisfactorily assess the quality of public services provided by customs authorities in the total number of respondents" does not reflect the actual state of affairs. A survey conducted among foreign trade participants whose goods are in the customs control zone cannot be objective, especially if it does not imply the principle of anonymity. The target indicator presented in the 2020 Strategy is the only one that makes it possible to assess the effectiveness of customs authorities in services, so its objectivity is the basis for improving the customs services system. There is no criterion in regulatory legal acts that reflects the effectiveness of consulting services.

In connection with the above-mentioned problems, it is proposed to create a Unified consulting Service of the Federal Customs Service of Russia directly on the website of the Federal Customs Service of Russia, as a system of interaction between customs authorities and other participants in foreign economic relations, including using the already existing Unified Automated Information System of customs authorities. To identify the advantages of a systematic approach, we will identify the differences between the current information system and the proposed consulting system (table), formulate and justify the principles of forming such a system that contribute to solving these problems, and present the optimal structure of the system.

Table – Comparative analysis of the current system of informing customs authorities and the proposed Unified Advisory Service of the Federal Customs Service of Russia

The principles of functioning of the Unified Advisory Service of the Federal Customs Service formulated in this work are based on proposals to solve the problems identified above, as well as to overcome organizational, structural, technical, psychological and other barriers that hinder the effective performance of consulting functions by customs authorities.:

1. A single consultation window on the website of the Federal Customs Service of Russia.

Information windows on the website of the Federal Customs Service of Russia may be located separately due to their functional purpose, but service users should solve all issues in a single field without searching for responsibility centers and their location.

2. Round-the-clock work schedule.

Due to the difference in time zones and time restrictions on customs operations, the communication of participants in foreign economic relations with consultants must be carried out continuously with the organization of the latter's work in 3 shifts. At the same time, consulting services of other government agencies related to customs should also be provided around the clock.

3. Login without registration, registration only in your Personal account and when submitting a complaint.

To provide consulting services that do not require user data, an anonymous option should be provided. Sometimes it takes a long time to fill in the necessary details for registration in the system, sometimes the issue itself is confidential, and most importantly, the subsequent evaluation of such a service will be truly objective.

4. The use of chatbots exclusively for informing on typical formalized issues.

Formalized issues include, for example, the timing of customs payments, conditions for obtaining the status of an authorized economic operator, commodity nomenclature codes, a list of excisable goods, methods of calculating customs value, types and conditions of customs procedures, a list of electronic declaration centers, deadlines for submitting a declaration for goods, details of customs actual control, customs duty rates, a list of documents with their templates for customs clearance of goods, a list of developing and least developed countries, customs duty rates, addresses of temporary storage locations, benefits for customs payments, a list of goods for personal use, risk-free delivery conditions, and more.

5. The user's choice of the form of service provision on an alternative basis: chatbot or consultant.

There are a lot of complaints about the work of chatbots in the field of public services, therefore, if the issue is formalized, the user can contact the chatbot himself with minimal waiting time, if the issue is complex, additional obstacles are not needed to solve it.

6. A single window without division into individuals and participants of foreign economic activity.

A rapid change of roles in foreign economic activity is possible. An individual entrepreneur can register a company, and a citizen can move goods across the customs border in various statuses. With a single entry and request form, there will be no need for a new registration, only a status change.

7. Division into areas – consultations (hereinafter referred to as the questions asked, including those related to the regional level) and complaints.

Based on the current organizational structure of customs authorities and the needs of participants in foreign economic relations, it is possible to identify the main areas of consulting: customs clearance and customs control, tariffs and customs payments, restrictions and special forms of control, law, information technology, regional specifics.

8. Oral response within 30 minutes, written – up to 2 days.

Order No. 492 states that the term for the provision of services orally is 30 minutes, and in writing – "no later than one month from the date of receipt by the customs authority of a request for public services in the form of consultations with the customs authority within 15 minutes." The monthly period is extremely long and is associated with organizational problems of interaction of public authorities among themselves and at the level of departments of each body. If we consider that the problems being solved are related to the movement of goods, and, as a result, to the financial losses of the participant in foreign economic activity, then the need for such consultation may disappear before receiving an answer.

9. An indication of the reasons for the delay in responding, with an accurate indication of the delay time.

In fact, tracking the situation with the issue should be organized online, identical to the tracking number for correspondence.

10. Performing primary consulting work exclusively by the offices of the Federal Customs Service of Russia and regional customs administrations, but not by customs authorities.

It is known that extremely busy customs offices, while doing all the current work, should also advise the participants of foreign economic activity. Naturally, due to time constraints, they cannot perform this work efficiently. However, only the control functions are assigned to the management of the Federal Customs Service of Russia. According to Order No. 492, "control over the completeness and quality of public service provision is carried out by the Legal Department of the Federal Customs Service of Russia and regional customs administrations in the form of scheduled and unscheduled inspections of the completeness and quality of public service provision."

11. The division of customs authorities into providing primary consultations and auxiliary ones that are not directly related to the activities of participants in foreign economic activity. Secondary consultations will be organized mainly between the departments of the customs authorities themselves at the request of the main consultants, if they need additional information.

12. Allocation of structural divisions of customs authorities that do not provide consulting services due to their tasks.

Such divisions include the General Directorate of Logistics, the Directorate of Civil Service and Personnel, and the Medical Directorate.

13. Indirect, if necessary, interaction in the process of consultation of participants in foreign economic activity not only with customs authorities, but also with other government agencies providing information support for foreign economic activity, as well as the EAEU authorities.

14. Interaction of state authorities on the exchange of information and documents within the framework of the problem being solved (consultations) exclusively among themselves, without secondary appeals from the participant of foreign economic activity to other authorities other than customs.

15. Implementation of all stages of consulting by customs officials directly in the system of the Unified Consulting Service of the Federal Customs Service of Russia with automatic registration and updating of the results of this work.

According to Order No. 492, information about the service and the service itself are separated: "When informing about the provision of public services by telephone, public services are not provided." It is advisable for a foreign trade participant to provide a complete picture of the service provision process in electronic format and continuously, rather than requesting information about the progress of its implementation.

16. A change in the position of customs officials from refusing to "verify" the declaration of goods to specifying information, including on the optimal choice of the HS code, the method of calculating the customs value, the country of origin of the goods, customs payment rates, and coded information in the declarations.

In accordance with Order No. 492, a list of grounds is provided on which the provision of public services may be refused. It includes all situations with complaints or proceedings, and even most of the pressing issues that a participant in foreign economic activity can address to the customs authority. What then, in the opinion of customs officials, is the consultation process? It is necessary not only to solve all the issues of foreign economic activity participants in a single window, but also to significantly expand the list of issues to be resolved in accordance with the consulting function.

17. The relationship between consultations and subsequent decisions of customs authorities.

Subsequent decisions of the customs authority on the issue considered during the consultations should not contradict the results of these consultations.

18. Assessment of the quality of each consulting service and the formation of an average assessment by service category, continuous monitoring of the level of quality of services in order to improve the regulations for the provision of services.

Order No. 492 lists the "main indicators of accessibility and quality of public services," which include many parameters, but most importantly, there are no criteria by which the quality of services will be assessed by a participant in international relations. Of course, the time of its provision and the possibility of choosing the form of treatment are important to him, but, in our opinion, the main criterion can only be the performance of this service by the customs authorities, and precisely from the point of view of the participant in foreign economic activity.

Only an anonymous survey reflects the real opinion of participants in foreign economic relations, and not conducted at customs during the movement of their goods. It is not advisable to introduce an indicator of the number of services rendered, since it does not depend on customs authorities, but only on the needs of participants in foreign economic activity. The qualitative characteristic should be expressed in points with the service user highlighting the main positive and negative aspects in the activities of customs authorities.

19. Centralized handling of complaints, but not filing complaints through the customs authority that the participant in the foreign economic activity is complaining about.

The complaints management system should be based on mediation practice, when a complaint about the actions (inaction) of a customs authority will be considered by an independent person (mediator). Complaints should be handled by the same departments as issues, depending on the content of the complaint itself.

20. The possibility of opening a Personal Account by any consumer of the service.

Any person, including a citizen who is not registered as an individual entrepreneur and does not move goods across the customs border, should be able to open a personal account on the customs authority's website. Firstly, as noted earlier, the status of the service user may change. Secondly, persons traveling abroad may also have serious questions for the customs authority.

21. Financial settlements with the customs authorities are reflected in the Personal Account, indicating the payment dates in accordance with the legislation.

Such a function should be provided continuously and without the request of the participant of foreign economic activity, as well as for all reasons (transactions, balances, advance payments, collateral).

The structure of the Unified Consulting System of the Federal Customs Service of Russia, in accordance with its functionality and the principles outlined above, should contain the following elements and links (Figure):

1. Chatbot.

2. Consultants in areas and regions (separately for questions, separately for complaints).

In accordance with the stated principles, the main departments and departments of the Federal Customs Service of Russia, as well as regional and specialized customs administrations, were grouped into consulting areas.

3. Structural units of customs authorities for secondary consultations.

The main departments and departments of the Federal Customs Service of Russia for secondary consultations were selected based on their functions, which are not directly related to the activities of the participants in foreign economic activity, but provide the information base of the customs authorities themselves. Customs offices subordinate to regional customs administrations and customs offices directly subordinate to the Federal Customs Service of Russia should also be involved in this scheme to resolve issues related to their level, but only in cases of immediate need for their services.

4. Direct information communication of consultants with structural units of customs authorities for secondary consultations and indirect communication with the latter of participants in foreign economic relations.

5. Direct communication of consultants with other government agencies to request additional information and indirect communication with the latter participants in foreign economic relations.

The list included government agencies with which customs authorities or participants in foreign economic activity interact during the provision of all services. The state bodies themselves cannot be considered as an element of the Unified Advisory Service of the Federal Customs Service of Russia, since they, like the customs authorities, are executive state bodies of the same level.

6. Access to the Personal Account of the service user.

If the requested information is or should be contained in the Personal Account and is personalized, the chatbot or consultant must indicate to the service user the need to switch to the Personal Account. The transition itself should be performed automatically after entering the user's username and password.

So, the proposed Unified Consulting System of the Federal Customs Service of Russia, in fact, meets the requirements of a client-oriented approach in the activities of government agencies and is able to solve the current problems of providing consulting services by customs authorities, namely:

1. Receipt of information services by participants of foreign economic activity in return for consulting services.

2. The multiplicity of treatment centers for various reasons in the system of customs authorities, including in matters of consulting.

3. Exclusively the control function of the departments of the Federal Customs Service of Russia, which have the main database of information resources of customs authorities.

4. The multiplicity of centers for contacting other state authorities on various grounds, including on issues of consulting in the field of customs affairs.

5. High duration of the process of obtaining consulting services.

6. Increasing the customs burden of actual control through the provision of consulting services.

7. Refusal of the customs authorities to consult on complaints, administrative cases, items of declarations for goods.

8. The rules of procedure for foreign economic activity participants to file complaints with the customs authority against which they file a complaint.

9. The information and time gap between the service itself, its content, and information about the progress of its implementation.

10. Lack of an objective assessment of the quality of consulting services provided by customs authorities.

The results of the study can be used by the country's legislature to amend regulatory legal acts regulating customs services, as well as by customs authorities to bring relations with participants in foreign economic relations to a new level with an assessment of the quality of services provided.

Further research will be aimed at testing the proposed Unified Consulting System of the Federal Customs Service of Russia based on presentations at conferences at various levels and appeals to customs authorities with proposals for its implementation.