Benefit-Cost Analysis Report on the Computerization of Procedures at the International Port of Cap-Haïtien

The paper starts from the port's slow procedures: SYDONIA customs links to Port-au-Prince break down for lack of a mirror server, goods are checked by hand, and each actor in the logistics chain runs a separate tracking system. It notes that the USAID-financed redevelopment of the port, agreed in July 2014 at nearly US$65 million, covers a container terminal, security works and a private operator but not the automation of port services. The proposed intervention, to be carried out by the Autorité Portuaire Nationale with the Administration Générale des Douanes over four years, combines a single electronic port portal linking all actors with two X-ray container scanners.

Costs cover equipment (about 277 million gourdes, nearly all of it the scanners), the portal (about 340 million gourdes), training, salary increases, maintenance and electrical works. Benefits come from travel savings, higher customs value and export earnings, resources recovered from smuggling (about 374 million gourdes) and lower port service prices (about 284 million gourdes). The benefit-cost ratio is 7.94 at a 3 percent discount rate, 6.97 at 5 percent and 4.50 at 12 percent, and the authors conclude that the intervention should be undertaken.