The Senators also wanted to get his take on the Auditor General's recommendation that a full audit on the list of all nationalities that the Department has granted since 1981 up until now.
When the Senators asked him about that, he said, it's a costly exercise that may be impossible to do. Here's how he explained why:
Godwin Hulse - Minister of Immigration
"It will be an impossible task; 1981, absolutely not for the simple reason that there are a lot of things that happened through successive administrations from that period of time, it would become an impossible task. I know for a fact that, for example, in 1993 there were directives given to the then minister of the immigration department to process a couple of hundred nationalities disregarding all charges, disregarding all check, no picture, no nothing. So, you could have had a nationality certificate that said you are Godwin Hulse or I could have said I am Senator Courtney. There was nothing to tie you to it. Not like now where we have to undertake that exercise and I don't even know if that exercise would be necessary. What I think could be undertaken and that you may want to check is within that timeframe the Asians who got nationality to see if they are all accurate or maybe you might include in that Middle Easterners or people whom you consider had the resources to do. But I don't think that a full sweep from 1981 would benefit anybody, would be worth the expense and even could be completed."
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