Saldivar-Morter was the second witness for day, and we’ll have a little her a little later on, but we turn now to Senior Immigration Officer Edgar Cano.

He’s the man who was in charge at the Belize Western Border when those 8 visa foils went missing. As we told you that’s the incident which triggered this audit in the first place, and today, the Senate had very tough questions for him about what happened under his watch. Here’s How that went:

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
"There is a comment here from an Immigration Officer Vernon Leslie, well this is the report of the Auditor General, who is quoting Vernon Leslie. Basically it's saying that some visa foils went missing, they turned up in Belize City, with a Mr. Eric Chang and Patrick Tillett, who then, according to the Auditor General's report, brought the visa stickers to Belmopan to confirm their authenticity."

"The contention in here is that you took the decision to issue visas, using those numbers, despite the fact that the foils - that the stickers were missing. You read that part of the report?"

Edgar Cano - Former OIC, Belize Western Border Station
"Yes, I read that part of the report."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"The Auditor General, in her report, stated in her report that she could not understand, or could not ascertain why OIC Cano, you, gave approval for visa numbers to be sold to applicants, knowing that all applicants - approved visas should have stickers in their passports. He should have been fully aware that it was not legitimate for those visas to be issued in that manner. Can you, first of all, say whether you did in fact give approval for visas to be issued to individuals without the visa stickers, because they were missing."

Edgar Cano
"What I can say - and I don't see it mentioned anywhere in the Audit Report, that I was on vacation leave when that incident happened. Right, I don't see it any at all in the audit report and I think that should have been included in the report as well. I was out from the 12th to the 23rd, and then I returned to duty on the -"

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"From the 12th to the 23rd of?"

Edgar Cano
"December, then there was an extension, and I reported to duty on the 4th of January. I have copies of those here."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"I understand that, but the question is whether you did give approval for visas to be issued without the stickers, whether it was at another time, or another point. I understand that you said that you were out."

Edgar Cano
"Yes sir."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"But my question is whether you gave approval."

Edgar Cano
"No sir."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"So, the Auditor General's report - the Auditor General is wrong."

Edgar Cano
"Well, I didn't give any approval in writing, none at all."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"Mr. Vernon Leslie - this is where the Auditor General got it from. Vernon Leslie said, the decision to issue Belize visas without the stickers was approved by OIC E. Cano, was done for two reasons, primarily to give our investigation team sufficient time to find the perpetrators, secondly, to avoid excessive revenue loss."

"OIC E Cano was reluctant to issue the visas without stickers, but eventually, he gave the approval. In doing this, we were given ample time to find out what occurred, and we avoided revenue loss. So, what you're saying is that if Vernon Leslie said this, he's being untruthful?"

Edgar Cano
"Sir, I gave no approval Vernon Leslie. I gave nothing in writing to him. I was on vacation leave. And, that is his statement - or his whatever - declaration, but I gave none Vernon Leslie. I was out of the office."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"Did the Auditor General seek your response to the allegation made against you, at any time, by Vernon Leslie?"

Edgar Cano
"None at all, sir. None at all."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga - Business Senator
"Who approves visas at the border stations?"

Edgar Cano
"It would be the supervisor on shift, or Shift Supervisor."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"And the shift supervisor would sign when a visa was approved?

Edgar Cano
"Yes sir."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"There is a form that was kept there for the applications."

Edgar Cano
"Yes, the applications."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"Who's in charge of the inventory of visa foils or stickers?"

Edgar Cano
"The Supervisor who is on the shift would be responsible for the visas that he sell or uses."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"And in this case, the supervisor on shift was Mr. Tench?"

Edgar Cano
"Yes sir."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"And when you change shifts or supervisors, is there a handing over? Is there a - I give you 10 visas, and you receive 10 visas kinda transaction recorded? Is that handing over recorded in some book or some-"

Edgar Cano
"Register."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"Okay, so when Mr. Tench discovered that 8 foils were missing, who would he have reported that to?"

Edgar Cano
"He mentioned to me that would have - He called me and said that he discovered that those were missing."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"So, he called you to tell you, even though you were on holiday."

Edgar Cano
"Yes."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"So, he called you."

Edgar Cano
"Yes."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"So, you knew."

Edgar Cano
"Yes."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"It was found out that Mr. Wade had removed the visa foils, but Mr. Tench should have been the one in charge. Because Mr. Tench would have signed off that he received them from the previous shift supervisor. Am I correct?" 

Edgar Cano
"Yes."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"So, how did Mr. Wade come in possession of those? Was Mr. Wade the previous shift supervisor?"

Edgar Cano
"No. No sir, I don't think so, but I cannot recall, but he was not a supervisor."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"How did Mr. Wade come in possession of those foils. Did he steal them?"

Edgar Cano
"I don't know."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"Because he was not responsible for them."

Edgar Cano
"He was not responsible for them, so I cannot comment on that."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"And then he gave them to one Mr. Middleton for sale. And then, Somehow, the Deputy Mayor ended up with them etc."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"Did you follow up about the missing visa foils, how the system broke down? Did you say to yourself, alright, this should not have happened, because we had a system in place? Did you try to ascertain, as the person out there, what went wrong, and how it could have been avoided in the future?"

Edgar Cano
"Of course, I was concerned."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"Did you try to find out what happened, and how it could be avoided in the future?"

Edgar Cano
"Well, I just thought that maybe we should conclude that maybe we should be more careful. That's it.'

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"Careful?"

Edgar Cano
"And then, and that's why - that is why the officers went in front of the commission."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"Why did you use the words more careful? But, you had a system in place that already was careful, because you had to hand over, right?"

Edgar Cano
"Yes."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"You had to check. You had to count."

Edgar Cano
"Right."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"You had to signed that you received; you had to sign that you handed over."

Edgar Cano
"Yeah, that's why."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"How could you improve the system? How could you improve on that system?"

Edgar Cano
"Having more security, more proper, containers, proper safety measures, in terms of maybe a proper safe."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"When the visas were handed over at the shift change, where would the foils be kept, normally?"

Edgar Cano
"In a cabinet."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"In a cabinet. With a lock and key?"

Edgar Cano
"With a lock. Yes."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"So, the officer before Mr. Tench would have had the safe locked. Mr. Tench would then have been given the key, checked it, locked it."

Edgar Cano
"Yes."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"So, the question begs, how did Mr. Wade come in possession of those visas, if he was not the before.â€￾

Edgar Cano
"No idea, myself, I cannot explain, cannot comment on that, sir."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"But, you did not make any recommendations - did you make any recommendations after this incident?"

Edgar Cano
"Well, the only recommendation could have been for safety, security."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"Did you make a recommendation?"

Edgar Cano
"Verbally, yes, to the department."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"The department is not a person."

Edgar Cano
"To the Director."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"But, you did make a recommendation. And your recommendation was..."

Edgar Cano
"To get a safe. Yes."