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Viewers who have read the Auditor General's reports know very well that there are visitors who turned into Belizean Citizens in a few days, weeks, or months after arriving in Belize. Some of them got nationality even before their visas were approved. So, if you're wondering why there aren't more officers who are facing criminal or disciplinary charges before the Public Services Commission, thats where Senate Inquiry ventured yesterday. Here's that careful examination that the Senate did with the Former CEO on that topic:

Candelaria Saldivar-Morter - Former CEO In Charge of Immigration
"When we make a case to the public service commission, it is based on the evidence provided by the department that the file is prepared and submitted to the public service commission for action. So whatever information we received, that is what we make the case on the relevant officers based on the recommendations. So the fact that no action was taken against Mr. Tench was because nothing was sent up from the department regarding Mr. Tench for any action to be taken."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga - Business Senator
"And the person in this case making those recommendations would have been whom? Specifically whom in the department?"

Candelaria Saldivar-Morter - Former CEO In Charge of Immigration
"The files are sent to the ministry by the director."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga - Business Senator
"And the director at that time was?"

Candelaria Saldivar-Morter - Former CEO In Charge of Immigration
"Miss Maria Marin."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga - Business Senator
"In your mind was there any situation that there could have existed a conflict? Why was Miss Marin asked to do this when it was under her watch, so to speak, that these things happened? Did you at any time say 'you know maybe, there may be a conflict here and maybe I should get somebody else to look into it?'"

Candelaria Saldivar-Morter - Former CEO In Charge of Immigration
"As the head of the department and as the supervisor of the officers, Miss Marin would have to recommend that action be taken against them, because their subordinates. So Miss Marin has to make a recommendation for action to be taken against her subordinates."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga - Business Senator
"If you could go through all the recommendations made by the auditor general, to see and identify those which you do not agree with, because you have a lot of experience. You were there for a long while."

Candelaria Saldivar-Morter - Former CEO In Charge of Immigration
"Some of the recommendations as I see it in the audit report is already in the financial regulations. A lot of it is just in terms of compliance and how do we get our people to comply with what already exists, and so it could either be done by, it could be lack of training, it could just be that people are not interested in doing the proper things. It could be other reasons why compliance was not being done."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga - Business Senator
"But you recognize this as the CEO. What did you do besides making the recommendations to cabinet? The buck stops with you, almost. You're responsible for that ministry right?"

Candelaria Saldivar-Morter - Former CEO In Charge of Immigration
"It is systematic and so we had to put in place something that would solve that issue. We have the financial regulations, we have the legislation - how do you force officers to comply? It has to be through discipline. Because it's not that it's not there what you're supposed to do. Everything is there what you are supposed to do. It's how do you get them to comply and if they don't comply, there are mechanism within the public service, within administration that you get these people to comply and that is by taking them to the public service commission and put them up for disciplinary action. It is not that there was nothing for these officers to work with. There were procedural manuals, there is the public service regulations, there is the financial orders, the audit and reform act - all of these things are there. It is to get them to comply."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga - Business Senator
"But what we are hearing here is that when things came to those people that we've spoken to before, that it's all been filled in, it's all there, it's all correct. So where do the irregularities come in, in your view?"

Candelaria Saldivar-Morter - Former CEO In Charge of Immigration
"Because all the procedures were not followed. You see where a form is not completed. A lot of it is forms that are not completed. It is not that they do not know that the forms needs to be completed. It's just that they did not ensure that it was completed. So what can you put in place to let an office ensures that a form is completed other than to tell them you need to ensure A, B and C on the form is completed."

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
"Senator places a lot of emphasis, he's asked persons before to speak about the recommendation. But this is you're addressing an issue that I have. Because some recommendations, I don't know how they can be recommendations like: for example, expired US visas and permanent cards are not to be accepted. I think that's a given. You don't need a recommendation to say that, because they are supposed to do that. Incomplete application forms are not to be accepted. That's another recommendation. Only business certificates from company's registry are to be accepted. The supporting document section should be filled out - so you should fill that. I don't see how you can make a recommendation that you followed the procedures."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga - Business Senator
"Chair, with the greatest of respect, it's obvious that the auditor general has seen that these things are being accepted or being done in this fashion and thus her... but your point is taken. But now I need to ask you this, I mean if we speak to these persons in charged - the directors and they are saying 'look everything that has come to me has been complete.'"

Candelaria Saldivar-Morter
"Then they have to answer to the auditor general how the ones that she identified was not completed. All the sections as far as I know, there is an immigration and nationality services manual, there is a passport manual, there is a nationality manual within the departments. So they knew what the procedures were."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"But with the greatest of respect, we have been asking if these documents are in existence and we've been told no."

Candelaria Saldivar-Morter
"But they are. I think I brought - this is the immigration and nationality services manual. We can't give more than this. The only other way is to have them answer for why they are not complying."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"So a decision was made at certain times and places along the road not to prosecute."

Candelaria Saldivar-Morter
"Any case that came to my ministry while I was the CEO, I took personal to the commission. No other case came to my desk while I was CEO about any officer not doing their due diligence at the department. But once they came, I took the time to take those cases to the public services commission. I can only do that based on a report from the director indicating that officer "A" was negligent in doing his or her work. Officer "A" allowed A, B, C to happen."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"But for somebody to have been reprimanded or some legal investigation to have taken place, seeing that you all knew what was happening, that decision would had to have come from the director and the case would have had to have been presented to the police by the director or to the public services commission."

"Whose call was it, for example, when you have missing files? Was the police brought in? When you have missing visas, were the police brought in? When you knew that certain visas were being sold to certain people, why wasn't the police brought in?"

"These are lots of the question that people asked and nag us that if everybody knew what was going on, including the public and I agree, then why weren't people prosecuted. Who made that call? Was it you, was it the director? Who made the call not to pursue..."

Candelaria Saldivar-Morter
"The director would have to make a submission to the police department or to the ministry whether they wanted any. If she did in terms of the missing files that Arthur Saldivar had in his possession, she was the one that wrote to the commissioner of police asking them to do an investigation into how it is that Arthur Saldivar ended up with the files."

"So for me, yes you are saying yes, oh there were these issues that the auditor general report, but nothing in this auditor general's report was a surprise to us, because we knew and that is the reason why we went into the whole session and we put so much emphasis, especially myself, in terms of getting the working group to push to come up with a recommendation. Because we realize that if we stay and sit back and try to fix all the little things within, we will still have the problem at the end of the day. We had to come up with a holistic approach to fixing the issues at the immigration and nationality services department and I continue to emphasize that, that is all that we can do at this point, because to me what the auditor general put out, myself and Minister Hulse knew and I think the public knew. What we need is a fix and until we look at that fix, we could always point fingers and we could always say, but we need to do that and there are 8 cases where they may be, in terms of the recommendation, there may be some cases that could go to commission. There may be some cases that you might just have to say okay, we need to just move on."