CUSTOMS SERVICE CRITICIZED FOR RESPONSE TO MISCONDUCT

The U.S. Customs Service has mishandled investigations of misconduct by
agency employees and has even given promotions to disciplined employees,
according to a Treasury Department inspector general's report released
yesterday.

"Customs' inability to equitably administer discipline fosters the
perception of favoritism," Michael C. Tarr, Treasury's acting assistant IG
for investigations, told the Senate Finance Committee, which is examining
the agency and may recommend legislation to revamp its internal operations.

But Customs officials and law enforcement experts testified that the
agency's new commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, has started a shake-up aimed
at improving work force integrity and preventing reprisals against employees
who report wrongdoing.

Kelly recruited a former prosecutor, William A. Keefer, to head the Customs
Office of Internal Affairs, which probes allegations against employees and
was called ineffective in a Treasury Department review in February.

He also has created a national board for discipline cases and set up a "cold
case" team to review investigations that were not properly closed, the
officials said.

"Every allegation of misconduct, without exception, is now being reported
directly to my office," Keefer told the committee. "Every allegation is now
being tracked by my office."

Customs has been hit in recent months by allegations of cronyism in its
Miami office and of racial bias when searching passengers to detect drug
smuggling at the Atlanta and Chicago airports. A statistical analysis
prepared for the Senate committee showed an increase in allegations of
wrongdoing against Customs personnel since 1996, with many of them lodged in
Miami, Tucson, El Paso and McAllen, Tex.

But Tarr and Keefer said agency-wide reviews had not found evidence of
"systemic corruption." Agency officials also cautioned against drawing any
conclusions from the statistical data, expressing doubts about their
accuracy. Customs is creating a new computer system to collect such data,
the officials said.

The IG report, though, provided a glimpse of the management problems. Among
the findings:

* A Customs inspector admitted placing marijuana in the luggage of a cruise
ship passenger. But investigating agents never tried to resolve conflicting
witness statements and failed to coordinate with the U.S. attorney's office
about possible prosecution. "The inspector, although verbally admonished,
was allowed to continue working," the report said. The inspector later
received seven cash awards and one promotion.

* An investigation into the drug smuggling activity of a Customs employee's
live-in companion did not take into account previous probes on similar
allegations.

* Customs management looked into an allegation that an employee drove a
government-owned car under the influence of alcohol and left the scene of an
accident. "A supervisor who had been drinking with the employee on the night
of the incident conducted the management inquiry," the report said.

* An employee under criminal investigation received two cash awards and one
"time off" award during the four years it took to complete the probe.