Gazette has learned.

A Canadian, Mr. LeDrew has headed up the service for three years and was contracted to run the service with Collector of Customs (Designate) Winnifred Fostine-Desilva shadowing him.

Last night the veteran customs officer with 25 years of experience had warm words for his experience as point man in the drug and contraband interdiction fight.

Mr. LeDrew said: "Yes, my last day at work in January 25. That's the end of my three year contract.

"It's been a terrific experience here in Bermuda,'' he continued. "We still have some things to do here in Customs but overall, I think the Department has improved greatly.

"We've made a good number of friends and personally I feel pretty good about my work and life here,'' he added. "Part of what I was to do was to work with her to prepare her for assuming responsibility of Collector.

"Pending approval of the Public Service Commission she will become the Collector of Customs,'' Mr. LeDrew concluded. "We've brought about some positive changes and I expect we are very close to the implementation of the CAPS (Customs Automated Processing System).'' He explained that while the department is still testing software and training is continuing he called the launch of the system "very, very close''.

"There has been some testing and we made the commitment to working out all the bugs and the new tariff has been up and running since November,'' he added. "We're anxious to get it all going. Within a short time after that, probably a month or so, we will be able to do online processing.'' When CAPS' launch was delayed in September after the software developers experienced delays, Mr. LeDrew predicted an operational date of February 10.