Staffing challenges plaguing Customs

Dwindling staffing levels at the Customs Department continue to be a headache for Government.

Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Christopher Sinckler, spoke to this as he addressed members of the Barbados Customs Brokers and Clerks Association during a meeting at the Barbados Small Business Centre yesterday, contending that while they have sought to address the problem, they cannot keep pace. To that end, he said it is an area that the Government and the relevant stakeholders need to pay urgent attention to. Sinckler’s comments came as he revealed that while last year the department received permission to fill 15 posts, between 2015 and the present, close to 30 Customs officers retired from the service.

“It is admittedly a major source of concern for the Government that we still have these challenges in maintaining levels of staffing in this very, very critical department. This is particularly the case since, as we know, the volumes and values of trade as we have seen through Barbados have increased times fold, consistent with the growth and development of our economy and society over the years. Unfortunately, while we have seen a reasonable expansion in the civil establishment of the Customs, the persons working there, this has not been at a rate sufficient to match the sheer volume of work which has been coming through our ports of entry,” he said.

Moreover, the Minister told those gathered this has been compounded by the fact that over the last decade or so, Customs has seen a fairly sizeable increase in the levels of retirements from the service, as more persons reach the end of their service or opt for early retirement. He added that some persons have also been promoted out of the department. These realties, Minister Sinckler said, pose serious challenges to the department, in that they find it difficult to fill the posts as required, given the specialised nature of the Customs function.

“If we say five trained and experienced Customs officers were to leave the department tomorrow, it is highly improbable, near impossible for the PAD [Personnel Administration Division] to find five persons, in or outside the service, with equal talent and experience to immediately fill those positions and eliminate any vacuum which may be created. This is because we simply do not have that type of talent sitting around waiting to be called into the service,” he indicated.

He used that point to raise another issue, the fact that there is no permanent systematic approved training course for Customs officers in this country. Sinckler lamented that this means persons cannot be properly trained in Customs procedures prior to entering that department. Tackling this deficit, he maintained, would assist the department in addressing the staffing challenges.

“It means therefore that all of the key stakeholders who rely on the system, on the skill sets and on the system, including your organisation, need to urgently focus our attention on resolving this situation as a matter of urgency,” he insisted.

With that in mind, he said that the Customs Brokers and Clerks Association has a role to play in that regard, and he called on them to reach out to the Comptroller of Customs, the Permanent Secretaries in the Ministries of Finance, Trade and Education, as well as the PAD, the Barbados Revenue Authority and private sector interests, to meet urgently to begin work to establish a basic Customs officers training course. Sinckler’s comments came as he said that he is certain that agencies like the Inter-American Development Bank or the Caribbean Development Bank would provide the financing for such a venture.

“…We need a cadre of persons in Barbados trained in the basics of Customs work, from which we can draw, if needed, at a moment’s notice, and that can be smoothly integrated into the service, if and when required. And, I suspect this would go a long way to addressing some of these challenges,” he said. (JRT)