Description
After the Lithuania’s accession to the EU and to the Schengen Area, the data that previously was easily available is not collected anymore – there is no possibility to obtain records on crossing the internal borders by persons, vehicles or goods; crossings over the external borders by EU's citizens and vehicles are not recorded either. In this way, it has become more difficult to control and identify potential offenders. The modern information technologies and advanced analytical methods are one of the major tools assisting customs authorities in fighting cross-border and organized crime in the EU and the Schengen Area. During the project implementation the Lithuanian customs capacities to prevent and combat cross-border and organized crime will be improved through purchasing of specialized analytic software that will allow to perform the analysis of information that is structured or unstructured; purchasing of operational management, task planning and violations analysis information system (with a precise geographical coordinates) for customs mobile units as well as training of the customs officers to use the new equipment and information system.
Summary of project results
After the Lithuania’s accession to the EU and the Schengen Area, the data that previously was easily available has not been collected anymore (there was no possibility to obtain records on crossing the internal borders by persons, vehicles or goods; crossings over the external borders by the EU's citizens and vehicles were not recorded either). It has become more difficult to control and identify potential offenders. Therefore, modern information technologies and advanced analytical tools were needed to assist the customs authorities to fight cross-border and organized crime in the EU and the Schengen Area. During the project a specialized analytic software for investigation and prevention of crimes and allowing the analysis of structured and unstructured information, displaying the relations between the objects as well as ensuring the integration between external and internal data of different format has been purchased. In addition, 38 customs officers have been trained to use and even to administer this software. Hereby, upon the change of staff or changes in the information systems or their content, the customs authorities will be able to develop this effective analytical tool independently. Also customs mobile units operational management, task planning and violation analysis (with a precise geographical coordinates) information system has been purchased and installed during the project. The IT system exceeded the expectations of Lithuanian Customs. Within one year from February 2016 until February 2017 almost 1000 notices/tasks have been sent to customs mobile units via the information system, which is more than 6 times higher target number than initially planned. The project also included acquisition of relevant technical equipment and development of software for positioning of customs mobile units. Through acquisition of modern IT software and hardware and training of custom officers the project contributed to the improved capacities of Lithuanian Customs to prevent and combat cross-border and organized crime in the EU and the Schengen Area.
Summary of bilateral results