Mar 28 - Governor Visits Borders and Coastguard Agency
The Governor Sir James Dutton and his wife Lady Dutton continued their familiarisation visits to local services on the Rock by calling on the Borders and Coastguard Agency on Tuesday.
They were met by the Agency’s Chief Executive, Mr Andrew Bonfante, who briefed them on the organisation, duties and responsibilities of the Agency. He explained how the Borders and Coastguard Agency has been very successful in its first 2 years of operations, making a good start despite having to manage considerable change.
The Governor and Lady Dutton were given a tour of the headquarters and outposts visiting the frontier and airport. At the headquarters they met the Agency’s Training Manager, Mr Andrew Victor, who spoke about the importance of training and development and of achieving professional qualifications for its officers. He also described the on-going plan to continue raising the Agency’s professional standards and thus improving the service it provides to Gibraltar.
At the frontier they were met by Mr Joseph Molinari and they had an opportunity to see first-hand the volume of both pedestrian and vehicle traffic coming into Gibraltar in the morning and also saw the Biometric data passport and ID card scanners in operation.
They then moved on to the airport where they were met by the Agency’s Duty Manager, Mr James Hernandez, who showed them around the various duty stations including both the hold and cabin baggage search areas where the Governor and Lady Dutton had an opportunity to see high tech x-ray, metal and explosive trace detectors in use to screen baggage and cargo. ‘It was a great pleasure for us all to host His Excellency and Lady Dutton. The visit went extremely well and both seemed genuinely interested in our duties and responsibilities, particularly the high number of people we process’ said Andrew Bonfante, the Chief Executive of the Borders and Coastguard Agency.
