7 News Belize

Tench: From Whistleblower to Scapegoat
posted (March 1, 2017)

So, there was no police investigation on the case, and there was no further follow up for this serious breach of public trust. And according to Immigration Officer Mark Tench, the Ministry of Immigration then turned around and tried to scapegoat him for the embarrassment. The problem is that he discovered that the visas were missing, so those higher than him reasoned that he was the one who was negligent on the job. 

Here’s how he explained to the Senate that he was forced to defend and exonerate himself in a Public Service Commission Hearing on the matter:

Mark Tench - Former Supervisor, BWBS
"I am the only person who has done any investigation into this matter and nobody has been blamed except for me and Mr. Leslie."

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
"Was it that you were blamed for taking the visas? It said you Mark Tench stole the visas or was it that you were brought before the commission because you the officer who - you were the supervisor at the time when it went missing and that perhaps there was a complaint about the way in which the visas were handed over to you?"

Mark Tench
"They said that I did a wrong handing over."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"Right so it wasn't that you - they were saying that you took the visas but it's saying that you breached procedures in handling the visas and in storing the visas."

Mark Tench
"According to the handing over like I explained to you when I come in the morning, the person from the night, the 10 o'clock officer who wrote in the book not the person that I am handing over this to the morning shift."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"Right but what I'm trying to do is clarify for your benefit you know."

Mark Tench
"Thanks."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"Because the way you are saying this makes it seem like you were saying that you stole the visas but that's not the case, they never did say that right?"

Mark Tench
"No."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"It was that they were complaining about the way in which you handled the handing over the visas, the storage of the visas and the fact that you were the person responsible when the visas went missing."

Mark Tench
"What I'm saying is that-"

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"And you were found not culpable of that."

Mark Tench
"Yes and I am saying that when they told me about handing over and all the other things that they got blamed for right, they never took the report that we had given them; seriously. They never wanted to deal with that report, I think there's a lot of reasons why I think that would have done but they didn't want to deal with that, they just wanted to scapegoat us and say we did a wrong, the procedures that we-"

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"So you're saying instead of focusing on who actually took the visas they focused on the fact that they handing and maybe you were the person in charge of the time when it was discovered that was the focus of the matter before the public service? And the intention was to get you to pay the serve charge because of lost to government revenue, was that the case?"

Mark Tench
"I am not sure-"

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"These were brought against you, was it a charge against you - was the department in its complaint trying to get against you a serve charge for the loss of government revenue?"

Mark Tench
"Yes."

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