Chief Immigration Officer Dr. Martin Brewer has said sloppy form filling by firms which should know better is to blame for much of the backlog in work permits.

And he said the fast track system had become swamped by over-eager employers who were doubling the workload of Immigration staff.

He said employers were sending in forms which lacked basic information or which had flouted rules by not advertising the post.

He said: "Everyone knows jobs have to be advertised for any renewal. There's missing information on a Bermudian spouse. Anything you can think of has been missed out."

Some firms had more staff in their human resources department than the 17 staff that worked in Immigration but still made basic mistakes, said Dr. Brewer.

"If they make sure applications are completed properly more would be moved faster. If only they would take time. We have hundreds and hundreds pending for missing information." But he denied employers were becoming worse at form filling. He said: "I am not saying they are getting worse but they don't seem to be getting any better." Aside from taking more care with forms Dr. Brewer advised employers: "Don't kept phoning us up ten times a day.

"An applications comes in, it gets processed and the one behind gets processed behind that."

"Don't keep phoning round people trying to get a different answer. People sometimes complain about disparities in information, that's because they are calling different people telling different stories and so getting different answers."

Asked about employers requesting renewals for permits that had never come Dr. Brewer said: "I am not hearing about that but anything is possible."

He said the fast track system, designed to speed the process, had become swamped and was actually adding to bureaucracy by doubling up work.

"Everyone is using it. They have swamped it. People are applying for the fast track permit at the same time as the usual work permit. It's deflecting from the purpose."

But he said it was understandable companies tried this approach and he said there were no plans to abolish the fast track system.

He said: "It's not a waste of money. It's faster than the standard application. It doesn't have to go to the board, you don't have to have all the documents. There's a lot of trust."

A reorganisation and revamp of processes trumpeted last year has yet to materialise, said Dr. Brewer. Plans to have three industry specialists to head up sections covering business, hospitality and other appointments came into effect for just one month before one of the heads left leaving the other two to straddle the three posts.

He said he was trying to re-fill this post but he added that no extra staff were being recruited at the lower level.

He said the department was still going through reorganisation and a promised new computer system, which he hoped would speed things and aid communication within the office, had not materialised.

He refused to reveal the missed target date for the new technology. Asked whether it was fraud forcing employers to fork out for $25 landing permits because work permits hadn't come he said: "Well a lot of this is because forms are not completed. It might take four months because two months is spend getting the right documents, getting the advert in.

"As a result of mistakes you should expect to pay. If it's not their mistake we take that into account. If we have held something up they should not expect to be charged for landing permits. It's done on a case-by-case basis."

He said work permits were being sent to employers between six and 12 weeks after the initial application but he added he was not happy with that situation. Mr. Brewer said he could not say how many work permits were pending or how many were held up due to employer error.

He said: "We don't have statistics in that format."

Instead he gave general estimates. "There are about 7,500 to 8,000 work permits of between one to five years.

"I think it's true to say there are somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000 active applications at any one time."

Bermuda Hotel Association chief executive John Harvey said delays of three months or longer were being seen in his industry but he did not point the finger at the ministry.

He said guidelines would be sent to members in the next couple of weeks on filling in forms after two meetings with the minister and technical people.

"We are working together as a team and trying to get to the bottom of this."

Asked if work permit delays were getting worse he said some members said the situation was fine while others said there was a problem.