Suggest your considerations about combating with corruption in the Customs
Service
Text B
From the very beginning of the U.S.Customs Service existence there have
been a lot of problems, corruption being the major one. No one likes to pay taxes
and a good number of citizens try to take the law into their own hands, bending
the system in the pursuit of increased profits. The reality is that with a small
number of inspectors, thousands of miles of hard-to-protect borders, and
unscrupulous entrepreneurs willing to fill almost any demand, the Customs Service
has always been something of an underdog.
Two years after the War of 1812 had begun, for example, the Governor
General of Canada wrote the British foreign office in London that "two thirds of
the army in Canada are at this moment eating beef provided by American
contractors, drawn principally from the states of New York and Vermont."
Although Customs seized some of the contraband, its task was obviously
impossible. "Like herds of buffaloes they [the smugglers] pressed through the
forest, making paths for themselves," a general wrote the American Secretary of
War. "Were it not for the supplies, the British force in Canada soon would be
suffering from famine, or their government would be subjected to enormous
expenses for their maintenance."
These inherent conflicts, and the vast profits to be realized from contraband,
have meant that the Customs Service has been required to wage an almost
continuous battle against corruption. A report from the solicitor of the Treasury
Department in the middle of the Civil War concluded that Customs Service clerks
in New York with annual salaries of $1,000 began an eight-year tour of duty with
nothing and left government with what at the time was "a fortune of $30,000" or
more.
While the adoption of the income tax in World War One would lessen some of
these pressures, the national ban on the sale of liquor during most of the 1920s
Prohibition created an economic dynamic in which businessmen and gangsters
serving a thirsty nation were all too willing to set aside some of their vast profits to
assure that those guarding the borders looked the other way.
When the nation's war on drugs picked up steam during the Nixon, Reagan,
Bush and Clinton administrations, drug organizations from every corner of the
world presented a new challenge to the integrity of enforcement officials at all
levels of government. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy
estimates that federal agents in 1998 seized 120 metric tons of cocaine and 1,580
kilograms of heroin. But this is known to be only a small fraction of these two
drugs that were smuggled in the country that year. While corruption is only one of
many factors explaining the continuing success of the smugglers, historical record
is clear: bribery is a continuing concern.
In 1998, for example, Congress became sufficiently worried about such
problems in the Customs Service that it ordered the Treasury Department's Office
of Professional Responsibility to undertake a special study of corruption within the
service and the efficacy of service's internal affairs system to combat it. In
February 1999, in a little noticed report, the office concluded that while organized
networks of corruption had not been uncovered within the Customs Service, that
the massive flow of drugs into the U.S. places "Customs and its employees at great
risk to corruption." OPR also found serious weaknesses in how the Office of
Internal Affairs "sought to detect and combat corruption."
(2900 symbols)
11.3.1 Give the initial forms of the following words and state what parts of
speech they belong to:
continuing
existence
weakness
smugglers
maintenance
undertake
unscrupulous
uncovered
11.3.2 Give English equivalents of the following words and collocations:
платить налоги, неудачник, генерал –губернатор, проложить тропу,
огромные прибыли, эффективность, запрет, обойти систему, голод
(истощение), взяточничество, малая часть.
11.3.3 Say whether the following statements are true or false:
1) Сorruption has been the major problem for the U.S.Service.
2) Everybody likes to pay taxes.
3) The reality is that the Customs Service has always been something of
an undercat.
4) If it had been not for the supplies, the American force in Canada
would have suffered from famine.
5) The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy estimates
that federal agents in 1998 seized 120 metric tons of cocaine and
1,580 kilograms of heroin.
Unit 12 Customs Tariffs and International Trade
Pre-text Assignments
12.1.1 Practice the reading of the following words and guess their meaning:
tariff
general
barter
duty
record
result
exchange
transit
preferentially
licence
procedure
quota
area
domestic
12.1.2 Give the initial forms of the following words and state what parts of
speech they belong to:
permissible
protection
equipment
arrangement
completely
comparative
valuation
differentiate
account
restrictive
12.1.3 Read the following words and their translation. Try to memorize the
vocabulary:
trace back
interfere with
costly
permissible
restrain
consequence
impel
mercantilist
dictum
discourage
encourage
revenue tariff
yield
en route
quantitative
commodity
windfall
проследить
вмешиваться
дорогой
допустимый
сдерживать; обуздывать;
удерживать
следствие
побуждать, принуждать,
подталкивать
расчетливый
афоризм, изречение,
максима, сентенция
не одобрять; мешать
осуществлению,
препятствовать,
отговаривать
ободрять; поощрять,
поддерживать
фискальный тариф,
фискальные пошлины
приносить урожай, давать
плоды; давать такой-то
результат, приводить
к чему-л.
по пути, по дороге; в пути
количественный
товар
ad valorem tariffs
trade prefrences
неожиданная удача,
неожиданный доход
тарифы, взимаемые
соответственно стоимости
товара
предпочтения ( особые
торговые преимущества,
предоставляемые торговым
партнерам из дружественных
стран в целях развития
экспорта )
Дата: 2016-09-30, просмотров: 229.
