Royal Malaysian Customs Department Swot Analysis

OVERVIEW

1.0 Practicum Organization

Royal Malaysian Customs Department (RMCD) is one of the government agencies under the Ministry of Finance (JKDM 2014, p. 2). Founded in 1948, RMCD are responsible for administrating Malaysian indirect tax policies which aims to collect federal revenue, control and prevent revenue leakages and provide trade facilities in order to help that sector (RMCD 2014; JKDM 2014, p. 4). RMCD was led by Director General of Customs Malaysia and assisted by three Deputy Director General of Customs who is responsible for enforcement and compliance, customs or Good and Services Tax (GST) and management (RMCD 2014). 

Their vision is to make customs administration as a world class (JKDM 2014, pp. 22). Therefore, RMCD’s mission is to carry out their responsibility through enforcement and compliance with applicable law in order to spur economic growth and maintaining national security and public welfare (JKDM 2014, pp. 23). To achieve their vision and mission, shared values which is i-SPEED that consist six core elements (Integrity, Speed, Professional, Efficient, Effective and Dynamic) has been introduced (JKDM 2014, pp. 26). RMCD always does their work with full responsibility and dedication by following their service ethics which are trustworthy services, sincere and dedicated (A. B. I. D.) as their guideline (JKDM 2014, pp. 24). RMCD has its own logo and slogan which is ‘Berkhidmat Menyejahterakan Rakyat’. RMCD stations are available in all states (JKDM 2014, pp 25; RMCD 2014).

I did fourteen weeks practicum with one of RMCD Station, which is Penang in 2015, from July 27th to November 15th. The Penang Customs Station is one of those customs administrations that are responsible for administrating Penang indirect tax policies. The Penang Customs Station was led by its Director, Dato’ Mohd Pudzi Bin Man. Its activities were managed by six divisions and one station.  Every division has their own role and was aided by some branches. Headquarters for Penang Customs Station (Wisma Kastam) was located at Gat Lebuh China, Penang. I was placed under Financial Management Branch led by Tuan Azri bin Mat Saleh. This branch was under Management Services and Human Resources Division and responsible in administrating and managing financial matter.

1.1 Practicum Rationale

The main intention of my practicum was to get exposed to the real working environment and see how that knowledge has been learned in class can be applied within the organization. During my practicum term, I have fulfilled all the activities that had been stated under ‘Summary of activities’ (refer Appendices F). Although, doing a practicum at Finance Department seems to be contrasted with the course that I am taking at Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) but there is so much knowledge that I learnt relating to my major.

1. Importance of Negotiation

During my practicum, I learnt about the importance of negotiation. Negotiation method is not only used for settlement of disputes in International relations, but it also used to manage conflict in organizations. According to Barston (2006), in international relation, “negotiation can be referred as an attempt to explore and reconcile conflicting positions in order to reach an acceptable outcome”. The main function of negotiation is to identify the common interest and conflict (Barston 2006, pp. 48).

In Penang Customs Station, this method has been used regularly in order to manage conflict. For example, in the Finance Department, there are always conflicts between employees and other department relating to payment process. This branch is subject to the related Acts and need to follow some procedures. It is often confused with other department’s employees who submit their claims for overtime, utilities, mileage and etcetera. Thus, negotiation is the method that has been used most of the time at this branch. During negotiation, Finance Department employees always focus more on interest and not on positions which helps the conflict to solve faster and effectively.

1. Bottom up Approach

Next is bottom up approach. Bottom up is one of the approaches to peace building that has been seen as a solution for the conflict in Somalia, the civil war. This approaches function is to build peace from the grass root level (Miall, Ramsbotham & Woodhouse 1999, pp 18). Meanwhile, in organization, bottom up approach is one of the management styles. The objectives of this approach are to get employees involved in the decision making process, draw out ideas and generate initiatives, to introduce transparency and to recognize the existence of diverse need. For RMCD, it is quite special because this approach has been used in its new tax system.

RMCD has introduced a bottom-up approach. Under the Good and Services Tax (GST), there is an input and output tax component for every stage of the production process. The company can claim from the government for all the taxes that it has incurred in making a certain product or providing a service and, when it sells the product or service, there is an output tax of 6%. It helps RMCD to gauge the size of the business that the restaurant generated from the input and output (Shanmugam 2015).

1. Organization Customary Practice

Then, I also learnt about organization customary practice. Customary international law is those aspect that derive from customs. In international law, custom is considered to be among the primary sources of international law by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), jurists, the United Nations (UN), and its member states. It is a practice that states follow because they believe that they have a legal obligation to do and not because of political approbation (Shaw 2014, pp 51-63). In an organization, there are also organization customary practices. For example, in the Finance Department, there is some customary practice that has been done in order for the organization to run smoothly.

1. Human Resources Management

Finance Department is one of the branches under the Human Resources Division. Thus, I gained more knowledge about human resources management. Human resources have its own function in order for RMCD to achieve its goal which relates to organization acquisition, development, compensation and maintenance. Finance Department has its own objectives which are administered and managing the financial affairs department, managing budget planning and financial provisions for operating budget estimate and the estimates of the development expenditure department and managing accounts department.