With succession planning as an established operational policy, the Customs Department has promoted three Senior Customs Officers and four Customs Officers, following a competitive selection process.

These promotions come close on the heels of the two Acting Deputy Collectors, Mr. Kevin Walton and Mr. Jeff Jackson being recently promoted as Deputy Collectors.

The seven newly promoted officers consist of six women and one man.

Senior Customs Officers Ms Lisa Kelly and Ms Tina Campbell, both of whom were also Acting Assistant Collectors and Senior Customs Officer Vivine Mohanty are now Assistant Collectors of Customs.

Likewise, Customs Officers Ms Vienie Vernon, Ms Crystal McField-Baldwin, Mr. Don Parsons and Ms Prisilla Berry are all promoted to Senior Customs Officers with Ms Berry’s promotion becoming effective 1April 2017.

Fourteen applicants had applied for the Assistant Collector positions whereas the Senior Customs Officers positions had attracted 17 applicants.

The promotions bring the total number of Assistant Collectors to eight and Senior Customs Officers to 21 in a total departmental staff complement of 164.

Collector of Customs, Mr. Charles Clifford, JP commented: “I am very pleased to announce these seven additional promotions within the Customs Department. We are very proud of the fact that we were able to fill all of these vacancies internally and are confident in the leadership and management abilities of these officers.”

He continued, “Our succession plan is characterised as a living and fluid strategy that must be adjusted and expanded in tandem with the growth and modernization of our organization. As I have said before, succession planning is never about one person or one post but must involve the entire organization and must have as its central objective the production of a cadre of leaders to ensure the sustainability of the organization.”

The Collector added, “We are fortunate as an organisation that we had many very good candidates to choose from and that did make the selection panel’s deliberations extremely difficult.”

Deputy Governor Hon. Franz Manderson, Cert.Hon. JP, congratulated the promoted officers and commented, “Succession planning which is very dear to my heart serves a critical role in the career advancement of staff in any department. I am delighted at the opportunities provided at the Customs Department to ensure staff retain job satisfaction and get actively engaged in self-improvement and career advancement.”

Financial Secretary and Chief Officer in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, Mr. Kenneth Jefferson, JP also lauded the achievements of the officers who proved their mettle in the selection process to get promoted. He urged Customs staff members to avail of opportunities to improve their educational and other qualifications so that they could better their chances at career advancement.

“Be focused and open to ideas and your good work will not only take you forward in your career but, in addition, also improve the working of the entire department,” Mr. Jefferson advised.

Photo caption Photo by Bina Mani, GIS:

L-r: Assistant Collector of Customs Tina Campbell; Senior Customs Officer Vienie Vernon; Senior Customs Officer Prisilla Berry; Senior Customs Officer Don Parsons; Assistant Collector of Customs Lisa Kelly; Assistant Collector of Customs Vivine Mohanty and Senior Customs Officer Crystal McField-Baldwin.