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Auditor General Makes Major Concession On Allegation of Ministerial “Illegal” Acts
posted (December 7, 2016)

So, in the afternoon session, when the hearings resumed, the Senate Committee members turned to some of the Auditor General’s findings in which persons who obviously did not qualify for visa’s, nationality or passports, managed to get them anyway.

Some of these people got these documents approved at lightning speed, some in a matter of days, some right after they had been given visas to travel to Belize. Here’s the Senate questioning the auditors on these findings:

Hon. Eamon Courtenay - PUP Senator
"We found recommendation and request made by ministers of government for individuals to be approved Belize visas, paragraph 7. First sentence; do you have any examples of these letters, recommendations and requests made by ministers?"

Dorothy Bradley - Auditor General
"Yes."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay - PUP Senator
"Do they form part of your report?"

Dorothy Bradley - Auditor General
"Yes."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay - PUP Senator
"Right... The actual letters? I'm asking you these documents that you gave us, you have the actual letters from the ministers?"

Dorothy Bradley - Auditor General
"Not in the report..."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay - PUP Senator
"That is the question I am asking. When I say form part of your report I regard this as your report."

Dorothy Bradley - Auditor General
"As an append no but we have it as evidence in our working paper."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay - PUP Senator
"In what?"

Dorothy Bradley - Auditor General
"Our working papers we have them."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay - PUP Senator
"But we don't have your working papers."

Dorothy Bradley - Auditor General
"So I thought that well..."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay - PUP Senator
"You follow me? I'm asking you, you have identified this and I want to see these letters. I don't see them in here. So I am requesting that you produce these letters of ministers making these requests. The reason for that is the point that Senator Lizarraga was exploring, you see that same paragraph at the very end you say that we noted that ministers of government recommended and requested that a number of Asian individuals be issued Belize visas to enter the country of Belize. You with me?"

Dorothy Bradley - Auditor General
"Yes."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay - PUP Senator
"You then go on, since the law does not provide for ministers to intervene in the visa process it was -- you're changing it to irregular for those ministers to have done so. The question is why is that so? If I write and say to you so and so from where ever is coming to Belize and I am recommending so and so for a visa why are you saying that is irregular for a minister to make that recommendation or make that request?"

Dorothy Bradley - Auditor General
"When we looked at the files with the applications that formed a part of, it appeared to us that formed a part of the process."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay - PUP Senator
"Explain that to me."

Dorothy Bradley - Auditor General
"The recommendation letter is attached and there are in some instances notations from the director confirming that maybe a discussion took place between herself and the minister and so she makes the notation; we have those."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay - PUP Senator
"I want to be more direct. Are you suggesting that the recommendation or request by the minister operated on the officer? The minister is requesting that a or b gets a visa and therefore it is being approved because. Is that the irregularity you are identifying?"

Dorothy Bradley - Auditor General
"Yes."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay - PUP Senator
"You see according to the officer in charge visa section Mr. Edgar Cano all applications with minister's request whether verbal or by letters were treated as normal. Now we know that they are not a lot of normal people in Belize but I'm trying to understand what does this mean, treated as normal, what does that mean?"

Carla Faber - Senior Auditor
"As any other application would get approved."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay - PUP Senator
"Sorry."

Carla Faber - Senior Auditor
"As any other application would get approved; if an individual took in their application they would treat the request from the ministers just as they would if an individual went in and took in his or her application."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay - PUP Senator
"I guess we'll ask Mr. Cano. The next sentence is our examination reveals findings contrary to what he told us. So what does that mean, that they were not treated as normal?"

Carla Faber - Senior Auditor
"Yes because we noted if you go ahead to the next sentence.."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay - PUP Senator
"We noted applications without financial letters, native passport bio page, passport size, etc. What are you saying to us? I'm trying to understand this paragraph."

Carla Faber - Senior Auditor
"Well we are saying that it was our belief that they were not treated as normal because we found that these things were missing from the application forms."

During the course of the questioning on that topic, Senator Dr. Carla Barnett and Committee Chair Aldo Salazar challenged the Auditor General to justify why she concludes that, quote, â€œSince the law does not provide for ministers to intervene in the visa process it was illegal for
those ministers to have done so.â€￾

Now, this is a pivotal piece of her report because she is calling out those past and present UDP Ministers who gave recommendations to unqualified persons who managed to get their Belizean immigration documents approved. As we’ve shown you, a number of those ministers, who were named in the report, have insisted that there is nothing wrong for them to give a simple recommendation. From their perspective, they are only giving an introduction letter, not directing the Immigration officers to break the law. 

Well, under the questioning today, the Auditor General did concede that she must abandon the conclusion that it was “illegalâ€￾ for these ministers to intervene in the visa application process. It is now clarified that she is substituting “illegalâ€￾ for “irregularâ€￾. Here’s how that part of the hearing went today:

Hon. Dr. Carla Barnett - UDP Senator
"The importance, the effect, the influence caused by because you're stating very clearly in your report that ministers intervened in the process by doing these things and causing the officers to approve visa applications against the procedures. But if in fact you had applications being approved that had nothing to do with ministers recommending but people applying and applying directly to the public officers in the office and being approved without these things and also without minister's recommendation then we kind of widening the scope of what is not normal as stated here. So I would really like to know if they were visa applications that had nothing to do with minister’s recommendations that would have been approved without all of the financial support documents, passport page, proof of funds, proof of stay and all of those things that would have normally been required for consideration and approval. So can you provide us with that kind of information?"

Carla Faber - Senior Auditor
"Yes."

Hon. Dr. Carla Barnett - UDP Senator
"So we would appreciate having that information forwarded to us about the instances in which if they were such instances of visas being approved by the department without the minister's recommendation, without any kind on ministerial intervention and also without the requisite supporting documentation. Can I also go back to 7.2 please my understanding that for the purpose of this the report has now been amended to replace illegal by another word in 7.2?"

Dorothy Bradley - Auditor General
"It isn't amended, it was brought to my attention that it is there and it's certainly wasn’t..."

Hon. Dr. Carla Barnett - UDP Senator
“I just want to know if this is a correction to the report.â€￾

Dorothy Bradley - Auditor General
“It is in the report at this point I would simply say that it was brought to my attention and I would say to you that it was irregular but it is in the report so I believe it will...â€￾

Hon. Dr. Carla Barnett - UDP Senator
“I need clarity with this because when you say illegal my question to you would be what law is being broken. If its irregularity then it may be a matter of procedure and process but if it is illegal it’s a law being broken so it’s really important for us to know whether this is a correction being made to the report or whatever else it would be.â€￾

Dorothy Bradley - Auditor General
“If you would amend the records then fine.â€￾

Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
“No that’s not the question, do you still hold the view that the fact that a minister made a recommendation for a visa is illegal? It’s very simple. In your view if a minister recommends the approval of a visa that act is illegal?â€￾

Dorothy Bradley - Auditor General
“It is irregular and required further investigations.â€￾

Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
“So your view is that it’s not illegal?â€￾

Dorothy Bradley - Auditor General
“So the term illegal I would refrain from using it even though it is said in the report.â€￾

Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
“So you are correcting what you said in your report? You do not wish to persist in saying that action is illegal? It’s very simple it’s either you think it’s illegal or it’s not.â€￾

Dorothy Bradley - Auditor General
“Yeah but it’s simple for you because you are legal, I have internalise it..â€￾

Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
“But you were the one who made the statement so that’s why the question is.â€￾

Dorothy Bradley - Auditor General
“I made a statement and I said before..â€￾

Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
“Let me just ask the question once and the answer for me is very simple it’s either yes or no. Is it your view that if a minister recommends.â€￾

“The statement of illegality appears in the report. As a result of the meetings today and other considerations the Auditor General would wish to have it recorded in these proceedings that she would want the commission to know that she maintenance that it is irregular and would not persist in the statement that it is illegal.â€￾

The Senate Committee meetings continue next week Wednesday.

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