When he appeared before the Senate Committee on Wednesday, Elvin Penner referred to monthly activity reports from the Immigration Department that were forwarded to Cabinet while he was a minister of state. These supposedly listed the number of visas granted. But, today the Prime Minister said he has no recollection of that:
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow, Prime Minister
"I don't remember that. I am not saying it's not so and if that were to have been so, it would have been for purposes of my wanting to know what was going on. Look, let us be clear, we all know, you can't get away from it. That's why there were all the scandals. Everybody knows what was happening at immigration. What the senate inquiry is showing to my mind is that while people want to focus exclusively on the politicians, I don't think the inquiry is showing up that sort of thing as the main ingredient. The whole system including the actions of some public officers clearly was rotten and we knew this and I wanted to be sure, because there was always the talk and the chatter that in fact we could try as much as possible to keep a lid on things. So If I was asking in cabinet for that kind of monthly return, it was to try and keep a check and to ensure that things would not get out of hand. But I honestly don't remember that there was such a standing request in effect. But I'm not going to say that Mr. Penner is not telling the truth or it wasn't so. I honestly don't know. I can easily check, I can easily find out from the cabinet notes and let you know."
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