Proposal for a Federal Law Establishing the Federal Customs Authority
Chairman “In proxy”:
Original text:
.9 Managing and operating the customs departments at the state’s entry points if any of them request it.
Without modification and now numbered 10.
Honorable President:
Does the Council approve this paragraph? Please, Your Excellency Minister.
His Excellency / Obaid Humaid Al Tayer: (Minister of State for Financial Affairs – Chairman of the Board of the Federal Customs Authority)
Thank you, Your Excellency President, for clarifying to His Excellency Member Khalifa Al Suwaidi, we agree to use the competent authorities, but it has not been defined in the introduction…
Honorable President:
Please, the rapporteur.
Honorable / Ahmed Obaid Al Mansouri: (Committee rapporteur “in proxy”)
I did not hear for the intervention, Your Excellency President.
Honorable President:
Please, Your Excellency Minister.
His Excellency / Obaid Humaid Al Tayer: (Minister of State for Financial Affairs – Chairman of the Board of the Federal Customs Authority)
As for the competent authorities, we have no problem mentioning the competent authorities and unifying them as competent authorities, but if your esteemed council sees the need to define them, we have no objection or they can be implicitly known as competent authorities, this is for clarification, thank you.
Honorable President:
Please, the rapporteur.
Honorable / Ahmed Obaid Al Mansouri: (Committee rapporteur “in proxy”)
If the Council deems it appropriate, there is no objection.
Professor / Dr. Hisham Mohamed Fawzi: (Legal Advisor to the Council)
Your Excellency President, basically we need a definition when there are federal competent authorities and local concerned authorities, but in this law we have only one competent authority and thus there is no ambiguity, and in the committee we thought of putting the definition but ended up not needing it because there is no duplication, meaning there is no federal authority called a competent authority or a local authority, but if there is an inclination from the council to define it, the definition mentioned by His Excellency the Minister is excellent and there is no problem with it, thank you.
Chairman “In proxy”:
Original text:
.13 Establishing and implementing a centralized mechanism in coordination with governmental departments for collecting and distributing customs duties with Gulf Cooperation Council countries in accordance with the applicable laws and treaties in this regard.
Committee amendment:
.14 Establishing, adopting, and implementing a centralized mechanism in coordination with governmental departments for collecting and distributing customs duties with Gulf Cooperation Council countries in accordance with the applicable laws and treaties in this regard.
Rationale: To emphasize finality.
Professor / Dr. Hisham Mohamed Fawzi: (Legal Advisor to the Council)
Your Excellency President, basically we need a definition when there are federal competent authorities and local concerned authorities, but in this law we have only one competent authority and thus there is no ambiguity, and in the committee we thought of putting the definition but ended up not needing it because there is no duplication, meaning there is no federal authority called a competent authority or a local authority, but if there is an inclination from the council to define it, the definition mentioned by His Excellency the Minister is excellent and there is no problem with it, thank you.
Chairman “In proxy”:
” .6 Appointing employees of the authority from special, first, experts, and consultants according to the effective regulations of the authority “.
Without modification.
Professor / Dr. Hisham Mohamed Fawzi: (Legal Advisor to the Council)
Your Excellency President, the essence of the saying in this matter is that the human resources law list is just a list issued by a decision of the cabinet as a desire to unify these authorities, and in front of me on the screen (25) federal authorities like the General Civil Aviation Authority, Emirates Real Estate Corporation, Federal Authority for Pensions and Social Insurance, Federal Customs Authority, and others, all of these are subject to the human resources law list to have a unified system without differences in salaries, systems, and so on. We know the existence of this list, but it is just a list and not a law, and when we came to discuss this law, we thought to leave this text to give some distinction to the authority in matters stipulated by the law including the issue of appointment, but unless there is no text in the law – of course – it will be subject to the human resources law list because the law can contradict the list but the list cannot contradict the law, so now we have two options: either to give the authority distinction in terms of appointments and the text remains as stated by the government, or if we say according to the systems applied in the authority of human resources or according to the human resources law list, when we returned to this list we found that it stipulates the appointment of the general manager and executive director, and gave the authority to determine a schedule with powers in other positions, so if we said appointment according to the schedule or according to the authority’s system, perhaps the authority’s system would contradict this text and give – for example – the power to the executive director, and in this case there would be a contradiction, and I would like to point out here that there is no constitutional violation in either of the two options, so it is permissible to take either of the two options, meaning that it is permissible to give the authority distinction or to make it like the rest of the independent authorities, so the vote will be either to delete the clause completely or to remain as stated by the government without modification, but modifying it to be in accordance with the human resources law list would have a contradiction because if the minister was given this authority and the human resources authority did not give it to the head of the authority, this would be a contradiction, so the solution is to vote on deleting the clause or leaving it as stated by the government without modification, thank you.
Honorable President:
Gave the authority to the council, and here the head of the authority replaces the council, let us see the proposed text by the brother consultant, please.
Professor / Dr. Hisham Mohamed Fawzi: (Legal Advisor to the Council)
In fact, there is a very simple text that could be a solution to this issue, which is found in defining the council, the beginning of Article (151) states: “The council issues tables of powers and administrative responsibilities related to this regulation,” so what is the definition of the council?…
Honorable President:
Do you mean the council regarding the independent authorities? Please.
Professor / Dr. Hisham Mohamed Fawzi: (Legal Advisor to the Council)
Yes, Your Excellency President, the council regarding the (35) independent authorities, so the definition of the council is “the council: the board of directors or the board of trustees of the federal entity or their representatives,” and therefore here we will consider the head of the authority as representing the council because this is the first authority in the history of the state that does not have a council but has a president, and with this interpretation, we can extract the powers and there will be no problem, I do not see a clear legal problem in it, thank you.
Honorable President:
Therefore, the proposal submitted by the members that the text of this clause should be as follows: “Appointing employees of the authority from special, first, experts, and consultants according to the human resources law list applicable in the independent federal authorities in the government” is correct? Please.
Professor / Dr. Hisham Mohamed Fawzi: (Legal Advisor to the Council)
I prefer that the text be limited to the appointment until the word “and consultants” because the phrase “according to the human resources law list…” might contradict the list for any reason, and thus there may be a violation, and the truth is that we can leave this phrase on the basis that if the interpretation is that the head of the authority is meant “or their representatives,” if the Minister does not object that the head of the authority represents the council in this authority because this is the first authority in the state that does not have a council but has a president, there is no problem with that, and thank you.
