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The Auditor General says that it was improper for him to do so, but yesterday, he explained that he started doing this for San Pedro because its isolation from the mainland causes undue delays:

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr.- Area Rep, Belize Rural South
"From 1994, when I was mayor of the island, right, the previous administration was in power, they had asked me if I can provide services because usually, I will come at least once a week to tend to the businesses of my constituency in different departments. So being myself, that I usually come Mondays, particularly, for the business of the constituency, immigration in San Pedro with the consent of the Minister responsible had asked me if I can take and bring sealed envelopes from San Pedro to Belmopan and from Belmopan to San Pedro. And that is what I had been doing from 1994 until Minister Hulse became the minister, and there was a lot of scandals over there, that he asked him that I can no longer continue to do the services but it was just more a service to the constituencies because San Pedro is isolated and the officers in charge will usually only come sometimes once a month and then those applications are delayed in San Pedro, it takes three weeks to a month before it arrives in Belmopan and then it takes another two to three months before it can go back to the island. That is why they had asked me if I can provide that but there was nothing that was individually it was a sealed in a manila envelope addressed to the officer in charge of San Pedro and addressed to the officer in charge of Belmopan. I believe that my job as the area representative, at the time as the Mayor, is to provide services to my constituency, the best service possible to my constituency and that is exactly what I tried to do, it is not something that I on my own went over there 'give me this' or the demand, it was something that I was asked to do. If it was illegal then I was not aware of that but it was just a service that I was providing."

Aldo Salazar- Chairman, Senate Select Committee
"Were you aware of what was in the envelope?"

Hon. Manuel Heredia Jr.
"Definitely not, because I will never open the envelope to see if it was visas or if it was passport or no matter what. My job was just to deliver, providing that service but I will never know what is in there. So when I saw that so many visas were taken by Minister Heredia, something is wrong here because I never knew what was inside of the envelope."