India loses to Sweden in the WCO elections
Mr. Satpathy — the image was hosted by the publisher and was not captured.Mr Chittaranjan Satpathy, Member, CESTAT lost the election for the post of Director in the World Customs Organisation. Mr Satpathy was a hot favourite among the six candidates but finally lost to Lars Karlsson of Sweden in the final round. The Revenue Secretary and the CBEC Chairman are currently in Brussels, but were obviously not successful in canvassing enough votes for Mr. Satpathy.
Five years ago, we put up a very unfortunate performance in the WCO elections when the Government of India did not extend all out support to its own candidate, Mr. A.M. Prasad. Mr. Prasad was not allowed to go to Brussels and finally he went there at his own cost. The Government even asked him to pay for the brochure he prepared to canvass his candidature.
This time around fortunately things were much better, but not good enough to get our candidate through.
Lars Karlsson — the image was hosted by the publisher and was not captured.The five-year post is seen as crucial to the development agenda and to greater trade facilitation in the developing and developed countries.
Mr. Lars Karlsson is at present Assistant Deputy Director General of Swedish Customs, Sweden and his success can be attributed to better canvassing methodology, including the help of Information Technology. It is learnt that he had put up his own website to answer the queries of potential voters and he did succeed in winning a hearts.