HM Customs has at least 20 vacancies for officers but is struggling to find recruits who can pass the entrance exam — even though standards have been lowered.

Bermuda's Collector of Customs Winniefred Fostine-DeSilva told a joint parliamentary select committee on violent crime and gun violence that protecting the Island's borders was difficult without the required manpower.

"At the present time, we have 20 something vacancies. That means we now have to assign staff based on the numbers. It is hard to control your borders if you are 20 people short."

Ms Fostine-DeSilva told a meeting of the bipartisan committee held in public yesterday that young Bermudians applying to become customs officers were failing the entrance test, even when given it a week before the exam. "The pass mark was 70 at one point," she said. "We dropped it to 60. It's an indictment on our education system. Basic reading and writing skills are not there."

She said college graduates couldn't even make the grade and not just those who attended university in the US.

"We just had one from the UK with a master's degree who failed the exam. I can tell you they are failing the test miserably."

The Collector said a recent recruitment drive prompted 236 applications for 12 positions, but that it was impossible to fill even eight of the posts. "Applicants fail the entrance exam," she said. "Clearly, the education system has failed us."

She added: "They fail drug tests and psychometric tests."

Assistant Collector William Pearman said psychoanalytical tests unearthed various problems showing candidates were unsuitable, including clinical psychosis.

Both officers spoke of the challenges involved in preventing drugs and guns getting into the Island, with Mr Pearman explaining that whatever controls were in place at the airport and docks: "Bermuda is surrounded by water".

He described how a boat could go out to Challenger Banks to meet another vessel without ever being detected. "It doesn't take much to import drugs into Bermuda," he added.

Ms Fostine-DeSilva described the US as the "source country" for drugs, guns and ammunition coming into the Island.

And she said that though two-thirds of the department's 230-plus staff were assigned to enforcement duties, it wasn't possible to check every person entering the country for contraband goods.

"We are in a particularly difficult situation because we are in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean," she said. "You can get into Bermuda how you like and it's a short hop from the USA.

"GPS is helping not only us but the criminals as well but they have more financing than we do."

The Collector explained that a single border agency was to be set up under the Ministry of National Security and that it would include a marine section, which she said HM Customs was currently without.

"I think the single border agency will go a long way to addressing the problems," she added. Ms Fostine-DeSilva said her department collected $240 million in revenue each year but that more and more residents were trying to dodge paying duty on goods brought into the Island.

"The key to success with border control from our perspective is voluntary compliance," she said. "People must pay their duty. Customs officers are law enforcement. They need to be respected. They are not."

• The committee's next open meeting is on Thursday (December 2) at the Senate Chamber at 10am.