Customs Officers – the nation’s pulse

The next time general elections are called here, you need not conduct a poll to have an idea who is going to win. Just ask a Customs Officer.

That’s the view of Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves.

“If you want to know who is going to win the elections ask a Customs Officer,” Dr. Gonsalves stated.{{more}}

As far as Dr. Gonsalves is concerned, Customs Officers “get the pulse of the what’s happening,” as a result of their interactions with the public.

The Prime Minister spoke of the modernisation on which the Department was embarking and said, even with information technology, the Customs Officer was the most fundamental aspect of the operation. He said they were the “backbone of any modernisation process.”

He encouraged the officers to be fair, reasonable and understanding, and instructed them to address “the issues which confront you under the law and under the international agreements and treaties.”

Sixteen Junior Customs Officers including two from Montserrat wind up the first of seven weeks of training at the Training Room of the Service Commissions Department Building today, Friday, April 28.