Another interesting part of Therese Chavarria’s testimony from today was that someone tried to bribe a Justice of the Peace.  Rina Chiu Hsiang Lo allegedly tried to bribe her to get a passport for a male claiming to be Paul Ku.

That happened back in October 27, 2011, and the Senate was very interested to hear her account of this lady who managed to get two fraudulent birth certificates for the person claiming to be Paul Ku. She told the Senate that she tried to block Hsiang Lo, but this woman managed to go around her to get the passport issued anyway. Here’s her account of the incident:

Therese Chavarria - Retired Immigration officer
"That was another birth certificate; it was a case of a birth certificate. Again I don't know how they got hold of the birth certificate but that birth certificate was issued at the vital statistic and the young man came to the office, he was accompanied by one known to us by Ms. Reina. She was always frequent at the immigration office so all the officers or most of the officers know Ms. Reina and that young man was brought into the office, the was escorted by Ms. Reina, she spoke on his behalf, she translated while he was doing the data, translation was made to put his finger for the finger print and translation was made for him to do his signature. I observed and I waited until the data was done and I asked her to bring the young man to my office. I tried to interview but the interview was unsuccessful. I asked where was he born and he could not answer because she claimed that the young man attended school in Belize City at St. John's School on Euphrates. I asked what was the name of your school, he could not answer. Can you give me one teacher who taught you in primary school? He could not answer. Can you give me the name of the street where your school is? He could not answer. So I told Ms. Reina that this passport cannot be issued."

"I said I need to do some investigation and I held the application, of course it will not be approved. I held the application, I want to the school, I spoke to the principal, I asked her if she could check for me I gave her two years, the years I taught the child was registered. Could you check for me to see if this child was registered at your school? She said yes. I asked when can I have an answer she said gave me the following week. Of course the following week I went on leave and she did not respond so I made it clear to all the officers in the printing section this passport cannot be printer, we cannot print this passport and I thought about it and I said I'm going on vacation, I don't want to leave this application. I took it from the drawer and I told the officers I am going to take this application home, this application cannot be issued. But before that when I told Ms. Reina I must make clear - before I told her this passport could not be issued right now she left 500 dollars on my desk. I told her no, I cannot take your 500 dollars we need to investigate your application."

"I took the application home and on my return I guess after about 6 or 8 weeks on my return from vacation that was one of the first thing I checked. Before I checked I asked Mr. Arzu he was the person at the Belize City immigration office, I asked him to check and verify for me with the vital stats to whom this number birth certificate belong and while he was checking of course I check with my staff, I found out the passport was already issued. Apparently Ms. Reina came back to the office with another application, with another birth certificate and the officer who was left in charge accordingly got permission from the director to issue that passport;  so on my return I learnt that the passport was issued."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay - PUP Senator
"Did you make any inquiries about that? Did you speak to the director about that?"

Therese Chavarria
"I wrote my report, I sent a report; of course I carbon copy to the CEO."

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
"I just want to be clear on who the director was, sorry."

Therese Chavarria
"Ms. Ruth Meighan. I made my report and I gave Ms. Meighan a copy and I forward one copy to the CEO."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"Did Ms. Meighan, Ruth Meighan say anything in response to the report that you provided to her?"

Therese Chavarria
"Well of course. I recalled she said after I submitted my report she mentioned that it seems you are being mischievous, you wrote a copy to the CEO, all of you in immigration have that nasty habit of writing carbon copies to the CEO."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"What the auditor general is saying is that Ms. Chavarria was told by the director that she was instructed by former Mr. Carlos Perdomo to process the passport. First of all do you recall Ms. Ruth Meighan telling you that?"

Therese Chavarria
"Yes she did mention that."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"And you do recall telling that to auditor general's team?"

Therese Chavarria
"Yes."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"Did that cause you any concern that the director is telling you that the minister instructed that the passport be issued?"

Therese Chavarria
"Yes I was very much appalled by that."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"You were appalled by that, why were you appalled?"

Therese Chavarria
"The minister normally would not give such instruction."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"I would be correct to say that with respect to this particular passport you had established that the person who was seeking the passport ought not to receive that passport?"

Therese Chavarria
"Yes."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay
"And that is why you took the papers home with you when you went on vacation?"

Therese Chavarria
"Yes sir."

So, do briberies regularly happen just like that at the Immigration Department? That’s what the Senate wanted to find out, and here’s Chavarria’s answers to business senator Mark Lizarraga on that:

Hon. Mark Lizarraga - Senator, Business Sector
"I'm wondering why did you first of all allow this person to leave money on your desk."

Therese Chavarria - Retired Immigration officer
"The person left the money and walked off and left, what can I do. The monies I informed the director that money was left there and I made sure the money was handed to the FO."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"I know you did."

Therese Chavarria
"But the person had tried not only in the office; the person visited me at my home two times."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"Was this the first instance you came across somebody trying to bribe an immigration officer?"

Therese Chavarria
"No it's not the first time."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"It's not the first time somebody tried to bride you?"

Therese Chavarria
"No it's not the first time."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"And you know of other officers that had been bribed, attempts have been made to bribe them in a similar fashion?"

Therese Chavarria
"Yes."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"Can you give us any examples?"

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
"That have been bribed or attempts were made to bribe them?"

Therese Chavarria
"Attempts, many scenarios and I would inform the person that, I would tell the person they don't know it's an offense and they could be arrested, they could be fined on many occasions."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga
"The person that tried to bribe?"

Therese Chavarria
"Yeah. One time in Dangriga I took one person to the police and he was charged and he had to pay his fine and the temptation is there, it happens, people try, people want to get things done fast."