NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The government will soon be recruiting 150 Customs officers to deal with a high attrition rate, according to the Customs Department Acting Deputy Controller Ralph Munroe.
“We are going to take in, I understand, 150 and that’s going to be for a short time. I would say we probably need at least another 150 very shortly after that,” Munroe said.
The Bahamas Customs Department currently has 735 officers.
Munroe said the department has promoted a number of officers over the past year in anticipation of the high volume of retirees, adding that many of the executives will also be retired within a year.
“In Grand Bahama, one of the positions at this time next year would have been retired. One is going to go in December, which is a matter of several weeks.”
Manpower is an issue, according to Munroe who explained that most of the work they do is hands-on.
He said their operations were limited during the pandemic.
“In the last, I would say, eight to 10 months we sort of come out of it, okay, but we see how we’re coming out of it pretty good in that we can do more interaction and we can have more examination in particular with goods,” Munroe said.
“We can actually see what we are doing rather than simply just relying on the goodwill and honesty of the employer.”
Munroe said that with the transition of a number of their employees set to take up executive roles in the organization, it may seem top-heavy.
However, he believes those numbers will pan out over time as they will need more officers to man Family Islands as well.
“In terms of retirement, persons are going to be moving off the scene,” Munroe said.
“It may seem as if we’ve got a lot but when you look at the ages of these people I would dare say probably in the next two years, we’re going to lose at least probably close to 50 percent on retirement.
“Then we’ve got to look at the increased demand for customs officers,” he added.
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