Custom, Financial Services, Latvia, Wages

"If I'm not mistaken, our trade unions have said that the salary should be raised to at least EUR 1,400," says Zukuls. "At the end of the day, we in customs want to hire competent officers with higher education, understanding of work specifics, preferably with good command of foreign languages." At the moment, the basic salary for customs officers is EUR 745 before tax.

In Zukuls' opinion, the comparatively low salary is one of the corruption risks in customs. When customs officers have to inspect a large container, they may be faced with international organized crime. "According to our estimates, the profit from one contraband cigarette freight may reach half a million euros," Zukuls points out.

"At the moment, we have a highly successful Internal Security Bureau that, including with the help of technical equipment, can control and monitor the situation. The other side of the coin is that after we can agree on financing for scanners at the border, invest EUR 3 mln in the project, but the scanners are operated by someone who is paid EUR 745 before tax - and then we are scratching our heads wondering why something is not working," said Zukuls.

He adds though that the Customs Board has minimized all corruption risks. "For instance, all import procedures can only be done remotely - the freight may be at the eastern border, but all the paperwork is done at the Revenue Service's central office in Riga."