Background

1. The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (Customs and Border Protection) plays an important role in preventing the illegal movement of people and harmful goods across Australia's borders. The agency is required to process travellers (passengers and crew members) entering and departing Australia by air or sea, and identify persons of interest consistent with immigration, health, family law, law enforcement, and national security requirements.

2. In December 2008, the Prime Minister announced that the then Australian Customs Service would be re named the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service and that it would be given additional capabilities to respond to the resurgent threat to our borders of people smuggling by boat. A number of activities associated with the response to the increase in people smuggling by sea were transferred to Customs and Border Protection from the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) as a machinery of government change.

3. Customs and Border Protection processes travellers at the primary line where, on behalf of DIAC, it provides the primary immigration clearance function. There is a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Customs and Border Protection and DIAC for the provision of these clearance services. DIAC undertakes secondary immigration clearance as required.

4. Passenger volumes have been growing at major Australian international airports.¹ In particular, Customs and Border Protection experienced strong growth at Gold Coast and Darwin airports, where new services to Asia were introduced, and at Perth.

5. In 2007, Customs and Border Protection reported 23.544 million incoming and outgoing passengers (by air and sea) to Australia, and expected an increase to 34.152 million by 2015.² Visitor arrivals by air are expected to grow on average by 4.9 per cent per annum. Notwithstanding the impact of the current economic downturn, the number of international air passengers entering Australia is estimated to increase from 22.9 million in 2005–06 to 29.9 million in 2011–12.³

Audit objectives and scope

6. The objective of this audit is to assess Customs and Border Protection's processing of incoming international air passengers in the primary line, in particular the extent to which: (a) systems and controls effectively support the referral of incoming air passengers who pose a risk and those carrying prohibited items; (b) air passengers presenting an immigration risk are processed appropriately; and (c) Customs and Border Protection has arrangements in place to effectively promote co-operation and information sharing between Customs and Border Protection and DIAC.

7. The audit focused on assessing Customs and Border Protection's systems, controls and mechanisms for information sharing and other arrangements in place to process incoming international air passengers in the primary line. This audit is the first in a planned program of audit work in passenger processing.⁴

Overall conclusion

8. Customs and Border Protection is processing millions of passengers across the border each year and carries out various functions on behalf of other agencies. To fulfil its role, Customs and Border Protection needs to strike an appropriate balance between facilitation and control in the movement of people and goods across the border. In particular, the agency requires sufficient trained staff, supported by effective processes and technology to select, search and examine those movements posing the greatest threat to border controls.⁵

9. Overall, the ANAO concluded that Customs and Border Protection's management arrangements in the processing of incoming international air passengers in the primary line are broadly effective. Air passengers presenting an immigration risk are processed appropriately. The routine for Customs and Border Protection officers undertaking primary line activities has been specifically designed in conjunction with DIAC to mitigate immigration risks at the border; and the routine was generally adhered to. Nevertheless, performance of some aspects of the routine were not consistently undertaken and cannot be clearly assessed or measured by Customs and Border Protection.

10. Customs and Border Protection's IT systems and control arrangements provide appropriate support to intercept incoming air passengers who pose a risk or may carry prohibited items. However, IT incident and IT problem management could be improved. Further, service times for IT incidents and problems should be established and documented, especially for those with a significant business impact.

11. Arrangements to share management information and promote cooperation between Customs and Border Protection and DIAC are sound, but there was no clear evidence of monitoring whether all the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were being met or not.

12. The ANAO has made four recommendations to strengthen Customs and Border Protection's processing of incoming international air passengers. These recommendations are directed to achieving: a consistent implementation and assessment of the routine required in the primary line; an up to date disaster recovery plan; the consistent recording and reporting of IT incidents and IT problems; and the regular monitoring and reporting of KPIs set out in the MoU between Customs and Border Protection and DIAC.

Key findings by Chapter

Role of Customs and Border Protection in the primary line (Chapter 2)

13. At international airports, Customs and Border Protection officers undertake the primary immigration clearance processing at the primary line on behalf of DIAC. Customs and Border Protection officers perform various tasks in the primary line that assist in facilitation, control and enforcement. They have the powers to clear passengers or refer them to DIAC who then make the assessment to allow or refuse entry to Australia.

14. The routine for Customs and Border Protection officers at the primary line was generally adhered to across the airports examined by the ANAO (Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Darwin). However, there were inconsistencies in conducting the specified routine, such as the `two point document check', which is the first task undertaken to `identify the passenger' entering Australia.

15. Customs and Border Protection has an internal measure called the Entry Control Point (ECP) rate, a maximum average of 45 seconds, to process a traveller through the primary immigration clearance. The agency has reported meeting the ECP rate standard consistently across all the airports examined. However, a substantial amount of data is excluded from Customs and Border Protection's monthly ECP performance reporting.

16. To assess the training needs and requirements of the agency's officers, a Primary Line Assessment Program has been implemented to provide effective manual primary immigration clearance. The technical aspects of training are, on the whole, consistently applied in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Darwin airports. Customs and Border Protection has introduced its Engaging at the Frontline training program which included topics such as principles of effective and tactical communication, engagement, importance of first impressions, dealing with conflict and other related topics.

17. Customs and Border Protection's MoU with DIAC clearly stipulates the agreed terms on training. However, there is no regular training program conducted after an assessment period, that will assist in maintaining the quality and standard of Customs and Border Protection officers' performance at the primary line.

Arrangements to support the business (Chapter 3)

18. In previous years, Customs and Border Protection used Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to provide guidance to its employees in performing their duties. The agency is currently in the process of developing its new Practice Statement Framework (PSF) that includes Instructions and Guidelines to replace its previous SOPs. Once finalised and if implemented well, the new PSF will be a useful tool in providing assistance and direction to Customs and Border Protection Passengers Division.

19. Customs and Border Protection uses a resource planning system to achieve better sourcing in workforce planning. The resource planning system was recently replaced by a new airport planning system, the Customs and Border Protection Airport Planning System (CAPS). The new system is operational in Melbourne and Gold Coast airports.

Business Continuity Management (Chapter 4)

20. Although Australia's international airports have different profiles with varying risks, the core business function of Customs and Border Protection in the airports, regardless of the location, remains the same. In general, the business continuity plans of the four airports and Customs and Border Protection national office are appropriate, however, inconsistencies exist.

21. At the time of audit, IT disaster recovery plans were not up to date to reflect the business environment in which Customs and Border Protection operates. Customs and Border Protection advised that the agency is developing nationally consistent arrangements for business continuity, which will be valuable in unifying airport operations across Australia.

IT incident and IT problem management (Chapter 5)

22. The IT incident management process of Customs and Border Protection's Passengers Division is appropriate, however, Customs and Border Protection officers performing primary line functions were generally unsure of the steps to take when an IT incident occurs with the Passenger Analysis Clearance and Evaluation system.⁶ A consistent reporting approach is important as it will likely improve reporting of IT incidents, and assist in hastening the process of resolving them.

23. Customs and Border Protection Passengers Division has a severity rating system that is followed in recording IT incidents. The rating ranges from severity ‘1' to ‘4', with ‘1' being an IT incident with the highest business impact. IT incidents of a similar nature, but rated in their severity differently, had resolution times reflective of the severity rating that applied; the more severe the rating, the less time the incident took to resolve. However, service times for IT incidents have not been established and documented, especially for IT incidents with a significant business impact. The establishment of service times is important as it enables management to measure service performance and response times to IT incidents.

24. Problem management deals with resolving the underlying cause of one or more incidents. As with IT incidents, an appropriate balance is required between resolving IT problems quickly and solving them thoroughly to reduce any adverse effect on the agency's operations. Customs and Border Protection Passengers Division's reporting and monitoring of IT problems has not been consistent.

25. Although IT incidents and IT problems are tracked by Customs and Border Protection, their status is not always clear. Further, it is not directly linked to the longevity of open IT incidents or IT problems. In the highly operational environment of Customs and Border Protection, there should be clear parameters around the resolution timeframes and monitoring of IT incidents and IT problems.

Arrangements with the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (Chapter 6)

 26. There is an MoU covering the provision by Customs and Border Protection of services in the primary line on behalf of DIAC. First signed in 1999, the MoU between Customs and Border Protection and DIAC for the provision of passenger clearance services has been updated and revised over the years to reflect the changes in Australian border security. The current MoU was signed in June 2008 and its Annex contains Customs and Border Protection and DIAC's agreed Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Summary of agency response

28. The proposed report was provided to Customs and Border Protection and an extract was provided to DIAC for formal comment. Customs and Border Protection provided the following summary response, and the formal responses from both agencies are shown in Appendix 2.

Customs and Border Protection welcomes the report on our Processing of Incoming International Air Passengers which confirms the effectiveness of processing of incoming international air passengers and intercepting passengers who pose a risk to Australia.

Customs and Border Protection agrees with the report's recommendations, with qualification. Mindful of that, work has already commenced on a number of initiatives to improve aspects of passenger processing, in particular in relation to improving the national consistency of primary line activities and the controls around IT problem management.

The recommendation to ‘develop a means to measure and report the time taken to process passengers through the primary line', has been noted. Customs and Border Protection currently measure the time taken to process one passenger and the gap in between that passenger and the next passenger. This measurement is used for resource deployment purposes and in that context has been adequate to date. We acknowledge the measurement is not completely accurate in terms of the actual time taken to process a passenger, however for its purpose, and until a more accurate, cost effective measure is available, we will continue to employ the current methodology.

Footnotes

¹ The major Australian international airports are in: Sydney; Brisbane; Cairns; Darwin; Melbourne; Adelaide; Perth and Gold Coast.

² Australian Customs and Border Protection Service, Strategic Outlook 2015.

³ ibid.

⁴ Future audits are scheduled to cover Customs and Border Protection's: processing of incoming international air passengers in the secondary phase and how other agencies (such as AQIS or DIAC) manage their processing of incoming international air passengers; and SmartGate and its adherence to compliance standards and an assessment of its interoperability with related systems.

⁵ See:<http://www.customs.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=4666> [accessed 15 June 2009].

⁶ PACE is the system used to facilitate the movement of sea and air passengers and crew across Australian borders.