ISACC Project (Innovative Systems to enhance Antifraud Customs Controls)

Italy, Albania and Montenegro are important trade partners nowadays and national customs administrations play an important role in securing the movement of goods across borders and the international supply chains by preventing illicit trade in large volume freight and by facilitating the flow of legitimate commercial cargo.

Accordingly, the improvement of inspection processes and customs controls is fundamental to address this dual need. The ISACC (Innovative Systems to enhance Antifraud Customs Controls) project responds to this challenge by defining informative methodologies, models, processes and structures that could simplify and harmonise the introduction of innovative approach in the phases of inspection and antifraud control in the three countries.

On this basis, following a long preliminary work of the General Directorate of Albanian Customs and the General Directorate of the Italian Customs Agency, it was agreed to establish a consortium in order to apply together for funds of the Interreg IPA II Cross-border Program Italy – Albania - Montenegro 2014 - 2020, this application which was approved on 28.09.2020 through the ISACC project.

The main objective of the project is to define a so-called customs "footprint", consisting in a digital form that include all info and parameter of a good, aiming to verify in intermediate stages (customs control points) the invariance of the generated information through automatic data analysis systems and geo-tracking information elaborated by Artificial Intelligence technologies.

On this purpose, the project will be based on three pillars:

-          Building up of an international network of public institutions in the customs sector;

-          Design, development and pilot of the IT platform supporting customs controls activities;

-          Capacity building for customs servants, focusing on the use and functionalities of the ISACC platform, and for private stakeholders, focusing on e-Customs procedures.

 The Project Leader:  Technical Institute Foundation for higher education on mobility - infomobility management and logistic infrastructure - GE.IN. LOGISTIC.

 Partners in this project are:

-          University of Salento – Italy,

-          Chamber of Commerce of Molise – Italy,

-          University of Montenegro,

-          Institute of Transport in Albania,

-          Customs and Monopolies Agency,

-          Directorate General of Customs of Albania,

-          Customs Administration of Montenegro.

The project has started in July 2020 and will last 18 months.