After several months of work, the Civil Society Council of the National Customs Service was formally constituted, a body whose purpose is to accompany the processes of the Service from the citizen’s point of view with an important component of participation.*100002 *
The instance was made up of representatives of the Valparaíso Fire Department, the Viña del Mar Recording Center for the Blind, the Valparaíso Corporation for the Deaf, the Javier Arrieta Foundation, the University of Valparaíso, the University of Playa Ancha and the Center for Studies and Training for the Deaf.
The National Director, Alejandra Arriaza, inaugurated the activity explaining the importance of this milestone and thanking each of the institutions. “We thank you for your interest in participating and for joining this Council. It is an instance that we needed to relate directly with citizens and thus improve our communication channels. We hope that both this session and the ones to come will be beneficial for you and for our service.”
After her words, the board of directors that will be in charge of the COSOC for the next two years was established. Marcelo Arancibia, an academic from the Institute of Philosophy of the Faculty of Humanities and Communication of the University of Valparaíso, assumed the position of president and Claudia Palacios, representative of the Viña del Mar Recording Center for the Blind, the vice-presidency.
The new president declared his satisfaction for presiding over “a council of these characteristics in an institution as important as Customs of Chile.” In addition, he mentioned that he has high expectations for what will come out of these talks, so he hopes to do his best.
Functions of the Civil Society Council
The Civil Society Council, COSOC, is one of the citizen participation mechanisms contemplated in Law No. 20,500, on Associations and Citizen Participation in Public Management. It is an instance formed in a diverse, representative, pluralistic, equal and decentralized manner. It is consultative, deliberative and non-binding in nature.
The main function of the Council will be to incorporate the interests of citizens throughout the cycle of public policy management in the Service’s areas of competence. In addition, it will have the following functions:
Ensure the strengthening of the participatory public management of the Service.
Monitor and pronounce on the plans, programs and projects of the Service.
Channel concerns, suggestions and proposals of public interest regarding the plans, programs and projects of the Service’s area of competence.
Define the most appropriate modalities of citizen consultations.
It must meet regularly 5 times a year, however, depending on the contingency, extraordinary sessions can be held. The modality can be face-to-face or online, depending on what the directors deem appropriate.
At the end of the first COSOC meeting, some representatives commented on the expectations they have regarding these conversations. Juan Paredes Brante, Superintendent of the Valparaíso Fire Department, declared that each of the sessions will be “an evolution of great perspective and vision for each of the participating organizations.”
For her part, Marcela Peralta, president of the Corporation for the Deaf of Valparaíso, commented that it is very gratifying to be part of these activities, although it is also a challenge in which she will have to learn a lot. In addition, he mentions that we must be attentive to what is going to happen later, “we have to wait for the future, we have to wait for how deaf people will receive this information, we must explain to each one what it deals with and see how this process is advancing”.
