Page 23 - Customs Today Winter1984-OCR

Office of Internal Affairs

By John O'Rourke

John O'Rourke is a Program Planner with the
Office of Internal Affairs at Headquarters.
The Mission

iil Customs employees and managers The primary mission of the Office of
I were asked to name the office that Internal Affairs is to protect the integrity
they are least familiar with, I am sure the and reputation of the U.S. Customs
majority would name the Office of Inter Service. Any organization numbering
nal Affairs." The speaker is Charles C. over 14,000 employees will have some
Hackett, Jr., Assistant Commissioner of with questionable integrity. Unfortunate
that office, who believes that it is vital ly, this adversely reflects on the vast ma
that all Customs employees fully under jority of honest, efficient and dedicated
stand the part Internal Affairs plays in Customs employees. Since the primary
ensuring the integrity and efficiency of Charles C. Hackett level of responsibility for maintaining
the Customs Service. high integrity standards is the individual
To many Customs employees, there The Organization Customs employee, it is not surprising
is a false impression that Internal Affairs The Office of Internal Affairs is that we have had minimal integrity prob
is a mysterious organization whose inves headed by the Assistant Commissioner lems among our staff members. How
tigators, auditors and analysts are re (Internal Affairs), who reports directly to ever, it is also to the credit of the Service
warded based on their critical investiga the Commissioner of Customs and that we have vigorously ferreted out and
tions, audits and studies of the rest of receives functional guidance from the In taken action concerning errant persons.
Customs. Quite the opposite is the truth. spector General of the Treasury Depart Internal Affairs has a strong com
This small organization, comprising less ment. It is one of the rare Headquarters mitment to aggressively seek out and
than two percent of the total Customs offices having line authority over its remove those who would thwart the satis
workforce, has had a positive and con seven Regional Directors who are located factory completion of the mission of the
structive impact far exceeding its in each of the Customs regional cities. U.S. Customs Service. Our ultimate goal
numbers. Contributing strongly to the impartiality is to better serve the traveling public and
The growing complexity of the Cus of the internal affairs function is its the importing community, and instill a
toms mission and the Commissioner's organizational independence. Although sense of Customs employee pride and
decision to revitalize the Service's en located in the regional cities, the regional confidence. This is reinforced by the In
forcement positions have presented Inter Internal Affairs offices report direcdy to ternal Affairs Integrity Awareness pro
nal Affairs with new challenges. The the Assistant Commissioner (IA). gram, in which employees are reminded
growing integrity threat stemming from Also located in Headquarters are the that it is not Internal Affairs exclusively
Customs' heightened drug interdiction Offices of Audit, Internal Security and that maintains the Service's integrity, but
and high-technology export control ef Management Inspection. In the case of rather it is each individual employee's ef
forts have been met by a redeployment of Audit and Internal Security, these Head fort. Integrity is everyone's responsibil
manpower, greater use of sophisticated quarters offices provide program assist ity. Each employee must set an example
computer technology and a multi- ance to their field counterparts, and also for others, and if he or she sees others
discipline approach to the Internal Af conduct audits and investigations at engaging in illegal or serious misconduct,
fairs mission. Rather than wait for inves Headquarters. While the Office of Man a prompt report should be made to the
tigative cases, audits and evaluation after agement Inspection lacks a field counter local servicing Internal Affairs office. It is
the fact, the office has moved aggressively part, it conducts inspections and evalua the extent to which each employee sup
to forestall problems before they occur. tions both in the field and at Head ports Internal Affairs' efforts that
Our integrity awareness program is one quarters. Internal Affairs consists of ultimately determines the integrity of the
example of this effort. some 250 employees Servicewide. Service.

CUSTOMS TODAY / WINTER 1984 21