Honduran Customs

February 15

Ray Schmidt


The medical team will start the installation of equipment on Monday, Feb. 18. But before we can begin, all the equipment has to get to the hospital. The most important is the final electrical items that need to be installed over the weekend so that the medical team will have power on Monday. And that means that I get to experience Honduran Customs up close, such as import/export, duties and Customs Office.

Today I spent all day at the Customs office (pictured) in Tegucigalpa with the clearing agent from the Ministry of Health (MOH). One of the agreements with the MOH is that all the donated items will be exempted from customs charges. That means the MOH has to get clearance from the Ministry of Finance, and then the Customs office signs off on it and then we can get the equipment delivered to the hospitals. While most of the equipment had gone through this process there were a few late arriving pieces that still needed go through this. I went along to encourage our clearing agent and to pay any handling charges, minor fees, and truck rental. This would save us the hassle of having to go back to the MOH to cover these expenses and speed up the process.

We arrived at 8:30 AM and left at 5 PM. We were able to get three of the remaining six shipments cleared and delivered. This is the second time that I’ve gone through this process in Honduras, and I still haven’t quite got it figured out. There are at least six different stations you have to go to. Sometimes you just need a signature, or have to pay a small fee, or fill out some paperwork. It all has to be done sequentially. And if one of the officials from whom you need a signature decides to take an early lunch, you’re stuck. Now picture about 100 other clearing agents trying to go through this same process. It can get very frenzied.

But we managed to get six UPS batteries, each the size of a freezer and weighing 2,500 lbs., delivered to the Escuela Hospital so that the electricians could install them.