A Comprehensive Performance Evaluation of the Customs Department Using the Balanced Scorecard (Case Study: West Azerbaijan, Kermanshah and Kurdistan Provinces)

The current paper aimed at utilizing the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) framework in evaluating the Customs Department in West Azerbaijan, Kermanshah and Kurdistan provinces of Iran. The BSC evaluates organization in terms of financial performance, customer satisfaction, internal process, and growth and organization learning. Financial performance was measured by examining revenues, expenditures, and ratio of customs revenues to total local revenues for the period (2007-2011). Regarding the customer perspective, a random sample of (384) customers of clearance customs was selected. The customers were asked to fill out a survey that measured their level of satisfaction about the Customs Department in regards to providing services and procedures. In addition, a random sample consisted of (280) of the employees of Customs Department in these provinces was chosen to fill out the survey regarding their assessment of the internal process and growth and organization learning perspectives of the BSC. The findings reported that the financial performance of Customs Department was negative for the whole study period (2007-2011) in terms of the amount of Rials collected, revenues minus expenditures, and customs revenues as a share of total local revenues. Clearance customs customers reported a suitable satisfaction level toward the customs services and procedures. Analysis showed that customs employees had a suitable level of satisfaction toward both internal process and growth and organization learning of the BSC’s dimensions. The analysis revealed that West Azerbaijan province was better than Kermanshah and Kurdistan provinces in all perspectives of BSC.