But before we go ahead with today's regular senate meeting, we'll finish off the coverage of yesterday's quite revealing day at the senate Inquiry.
The Senate committee grilled Former Immigration Director Ruth Meighan about tranches of immigration documents which were improperly approved and issued to applicants who did not qualify during her tenure between 2011 and early 2013.
The Senate interrogated Meighan about the instances in which permanent residency was issued for persons who didn't qualify. From the perspective of Auditor General, the Immigration Department should have clearly seen that these people did not qualify because a review of the list of approved visas would have shown that they were not in Belize for more than a few months, or in some instances a few days, and certainly not long enough to qualify under the law.
When Meighan was confronted with the fact that she granted permanent residency for 15 such Asian applicants, her defense was that she was provided with documents showing passports which appeared to prove that these people had been in Belize for the required time. She's alleging that she trusted the vetting officers who brought these applications to her to approve, and that there was allegedly a sophisticated level of fraud and forgery which looked so authentic that it fooled her completely.
We'll show you what she had to say about those officers under during her time in the Department, but first, we take you to the back and forth she had with the Senate Committee about the incident which caught the Audit Department's attention the first place. So, viewers may know that the Audit Department went into Immigration and Nationality to conduct an expanded audit after the Elvin Penner/Citizen Kim passport scandal broke. But, a lesser known fact is that the Auditor General decided to inspect the Immigration Department because received a report that 8 visa foils went missing. While they were investigating that, the Citizen Kim scandal was unearthed, and that led the Auditors to expand to a 2-year review.
So, what was so worrying about these 8 missing visa foils? Well, it has the appearance of corruption within the Immigration Department. Internal Investigations have led to sworn statements that senior immigration officers stole these 8 visa back in December of 2012. These officers allegedly sold them, and to cover up what happened, another immigration officer issued visas to legitimate applicants using the ID numbers attached to these same missing visa foils. Viewers may know that the visa foils come with an ID number and a sticker which is placed in the passport of an approved applicant. In these instances, because they were stolen, these legitimately approved applicants did not get the stickers in their passport, as was part of the procedures.
So, how did the Department handle it? Well, according to the Auditor General's report, they should have done a lot more to bring criminal or stiffer disciplinary sanctions, but it turns out that not much was done. It happened during Ruth Meighan's tenure, and here's the back and forth with the Senate when she was questioned about it:
Hon. Aldo Salazar, Chairman - Senate Select Committee
"The complaint by the auditor general in her report is that if 8 visas stickers went missing (this is on page 14) on the 26th December 2012, why was it not until the 29th December 2012 that Cano gave approval for the 8 visas numbers to be issued to applicants?"
"So the numbers were issued, because they could ascertain what numbers were missing, but the foils were not issued along with the visa. That is the understanding that I have."
"So was Mr. Cano authorized to issue government of Belize receipts with those visa numbers without the attendant visa foils?"
Ruth Meighan - Former Director of Immigration
"I don't believe so."
Hon. Aldo Salazar, Chairman - Senate Select Committee
"Apart from the investigation as to who stole the visa foils, was there any investigation commence to your knowledge against any of the immigration officers involved? I am not saying that any of them were involved."
Ruth Meighan - Former Director of Immigration
"Not up to when I was there, no."
Hon. Aldo Salazar, Chairman - Senate Select Committee
"If you have said that you believe that officer Cano was wrong to issue the visas with those numbers without the attendant visa foils. Can you say why there was no investigation or no disciplinary action emanating from that?"
Ruth Meighan - Former Director of Immigration
"There was an investigation. As I said upon my return and hearing that the visa stubs were missing, I ask the deputy director because she was the one..."
Hon. Aldo Salazar, Chairman - Senate Select Committee
"I'm not speaking about the missing foils, I'm speaking about to issue the visas without the foils."
Ruth Meighan - Former Director of Immigration
"I think that would have been a part of the investigation."
Hon. Aldo Salazar, Chairman - Senate Select Committee
"I'm saying was there any disciplinary action to your knowledge taken as a result of that?"
Ruth Meighan - Former Director of Immigration
"Not that I know of, no."
Hon. Aldo Salazar, Chairman - Senate Select Committee
"There is a specific mention on page 14. It's at item 10.3ii - why immigration officer George Reynolds did not take custody of the visas and inform the director immediately since there were housed in the same building? Why the then director Miss Ruth Meighan did not make efforts to have the matter investigated by the police and retrieve the stickers from the aforementioned individuals who have the stickers in their possession? The auditor is saying that she could not ascertain why when the stickers were brought to Reynolds to confirm their authenticity, why he didn't take custody of them and she goes on further to say why you did not - she is making the specific allegation that contrary to what you've said here today, that you did not do anything to..."
Ruth Meighan - Former Director of Immigration
"I personally did not do anything, but I asked the deputy to ensure that an investigation took place. I personally did not oversee the investigation, but the matter was being investigated."
Hon. Aldo Salazar, Chairman - Senate Select Committee
"So the statement "Miss Ruth Meighan did not make efforts to have the matter investigated by the police." Is that accurate?"
Ruth Meighan - Former Director of Immigration
"I don't know where the auditor general got that information from."
Hon. Aldo Salazar, Chairman - Senate Select Committee
"So you would disagree with that?"
Ruth Meighan - Former Director of Immigration
"I would definitely disagree with that, because when I came back and the case was presented I asked the deputy director to ensure that an investigation was carried through."
Hon. Dr. Carla Barnett, UDP Senator
"Would you be aware if the recommendations for disciplinary action were accepted and the specific officers would have been discipline?"
Ruth Meighan - Former Director of Immigration
"No. But from this report I saw that something had gone up to the commission for the officers to be disciplined."
In the Auditor Generals report of this incident, she reports that the Ministry supported a recommendation to demote and bring a surcharge against two of the immigration officers, but there was no mention of action against the officer who stole the visa foils, or the officer who attempted to cover up that they were missing.
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