Two Immigration Officers Named Top Performers

TORTOLA, B.V.I- Immigration Officers Juliet Christopher and Walter Maduro have been identified as the top performers in the just completed immigration training workshop which focused on the theme Enhancing Border Protection with Quality Service.

Ms. Christopher, who is attached to the West End port of entry and Mr. Maduro, who is based at the Road Town port of entry, were selected based on the evaluations conducted by the trainers from the United Kingdom Border Agency.

Participants in the course completed two evaluations, the first of which focused on forgery and counterfeit/impostors, while the second assessment dealt with all topics covered during the training sessions.

Ms. Christopher scored the highest in the evaluation exercises and was only one point ahead of Mr. Maduro.

Permanent Secretary in the Premier’s Office Mrs. Rosalie Adams was high in praise for all of the participating officers, commending them for what she termed an “outstanding performance.” Mrs. Adams stated that “the officers’ achievement shows that they grasped the concepts

Top male performer, Immigration Officer, Mr. Walter Maduro receives certificate of completion from Premier Honourable Ralph T. O’Neal at the closing ceremony for the immigration training workshop on Friday, 25 July, 2008. Photo Credit: Aldrin Rabsatt/GIS

The evaluation on forgery required the identification of forged documents and all of the participants were able to correctly do so.

Mrs. Adams told the Department of Information and Public Relations “I am extremely proud because they all achieved maximum points on the forgery detection test and according to the workshop facilitators, this does not happen in the United Kingdom.”

Noting that the average score of the immigration officers was 85%, the Permanent Secretary said “the trainers have acknowledged that this is very good and I certainly concur based on the amount of information they had to retain within a short amount of time. I am really proud of these officers.”

Mr. Maduro joined the public service in 2000 and has been an immigration officer since 2005 while Ms. Christopher has been an immigration officer for seven years.

In an interview with the Department of Information and Public Relations, Ms. Christopher described the workshop as “a very effective course.”    ~~Adz:Left~~
 
Reflecting on the sessions, she said “we learnt a lot about customer service, how to be efficient, courteous and we learnt how to detect false documents and non-genuine travellers. We also learnt a lot about managerial skills and how to implement them.”

Sixteen immigration officers participated in the week-long training exercise which covered topics such as effective leadership and management, detecting non-genuine travellers, document examination, forgery detection and operating the internal border.

The workshop was organised by the Immigration Department and the Premier’s Officer under which portfolio it falls. The Immigration Department is responsible for securing the borders of the Territory through the delivery of efficient and impartial service.