Consultant - Customs Trade
Partnership Against Terrorism

Relevant Experience:

• Bachelors degree required, Master’s degree preferred
• Certified trainer/ internal auditor for C-TPAT
• At least 3 years of professional experience in providing and supervising consultancy assignments for Customs Trade Partnership against Terrorism (C-TPAT) Audit in garment industry.
• At least 5 years of working experience in  textiles related certifications and trainings
• Previous experience of developing, implementing and monitoring C-TPAT principles in textile factories
• References of factories where the consultant successfully facilitated  C-TPAT certification
• Strong analytical and communication (both verbal and written) skills, sense of accuracy and attention to detail.
• Excellent writing and oral communication skills.

Job Description:

The garment sector is a labor-intensive sector that provides significant value added opportunities. The industry currently operates on a small and disorganized scale, with inefficient SMEs, operating on insufficient capacity therefore causing delayed deliveries.

A majority of the small scale garment factories are not aware that timely deliveries and shipments to their buyers are necessary to maintain efficiency and a competitive edge. Certifications like C-TPAT (Customs-Trade Partnership against Terrorism) play a critical role in accessing customers in the United States and have almost become mandatory for Pakistani manufacturers after the 9/11 attacks. The Customs-Trade Partnership against Terrorism (C-TPAT) is a voluntary supply chain security program led by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and focuses on improving the security of private companies' supply chains with respect to terrorism. It allows for quicker customs clearance, hence shorter delivery times. Its audit is conducted by an independent third party, which raises the confidence and trust level of the buyers for the particular supplier.

The objective of this consultancy is to facilitate the beneficiaries in adoption, deployment and monitoring of all required principles and practices and ensure the quality of all developments prior to audit in order to acquire C-TPAT certification successfully.

The consultant is required to perform the following tasks:

1. Visit selected beneficiaries factories and conduct individual interviews with management and supervisors to understand existing practices.
2. Evaluate factory according to C-TPAT principles and conduct a gap analysis of each factory’s infrastructure against these principles. The consultant will use this analysis to develop customized action plans for any infrastructure improvements as per C-TPAT requirements.
3. Give a detailed activity plan, noted in the deliverables schedule (Section G) for each factory, including the estimated budget for any type of construction or improvement essential to fulfill C-TPAT principles.
4. Take photographs of physical weaknesses or evidence of non-compliance at the factory site (for example the absence of a barbed wire around the boundary wall). After factory upgrades, re-photograph these physical weaknesses or evidence of non-compliance to determine if improvements are sufficient.
5. The consultant will provide a one-day training session to the employee(s) nominated, expected employees 3-5, by the respective factory on C-TPAT security guidelines and how to ensure and carryout C-TPAT compliances in future.
6. Make a compliance checklist which names the necessary documents and efforts required to achieve C-TPAP.
7. Design and develop documents, i.e. written manuals, policies, templates, bulletins, and procedures, required by each factory under C-TPAT Principles relating to facility’s security conditions.
8. Create a document of standard operating procedures (SOP) to be used by compliance team in each factory.  The SOPs should assist the compliance team in verification of the C-TPAT principles.
9. Create a mechanism for background checks of employees working in the packing department. This could be a list of documents used by each garment factory during the hiring process, i.e., background check or a reference report from the respective Police Station and or Union Council as per the law of the land.
10. Perform internal audit to verify/monitor that the garment factory is following all C-TPAT principles properly.

 Deliverables:

1. Report on gap analysis and action plan for each factory conducted for each factory
2. Training material on awareness session of compliance team.
3. Compliance document checklist
4. Activity Plan
5. First activity status report
6. Submission of copies of all the documents that were designed and developed for C-TPAT Principles
7. Second activity status report
8. Internal Audit Report
9. Final Report