ENSURING THE ECONOMIC SECURITY OF UKRAINE AS A COMPONENT OF THE CUSTOMS COMPETENCES OF A CUSTOMS AUTHORITY OFFICIAL

The article addresses the issue of whether ensuring the economic security of Ukraine should be considered the responsibility of a customs authority official. The purpose of this study is to analyse the current state of the competences of a customs authority official. To this end, the following three steps are proposed: a) the praxeological dimension is to be identified; b) the subject-content dimension is to be distinguished and analysed; c) the ensuring of the economic security of Ukraine is to be substantiated as one of the key competences of a customs authority official. The methodology of the study incorporates a variety of approaches, including general and special methods of scientific cognition, the method of systems analysis, the dialectical method, formallogical methods, and the structural-functional method, in addition to a range of empirical methods. The results obtained from this study support the advancement of the thesis that the concept of "customs competences", in contrast to the concept of 'competence of customs authorities' (which has legal significance), is an applied concept and represents a set of specific characteristics (knowledge, skills, abilities, motives, and values). The exhaustive list of these characteristics is provided by customs legislation. It is clear that defining the notion of "customs competences' in terms of 'professional competence" is a breach of legal drafting techniques, given that the latter is substantially broader and more comprehensive in terms of content and essence. The State Customs Service of Ukraine is proposing the adoption of the following: a) training programmes for customs authority officials with a focus on ensuring economic security; and b) advanced training programmes aimed at updating knowledge related to ensuring economic security.