After a week’s break, Immigration Minister Godwin Hulse was today called to testify a second time in the Senate Hearings on Immigration.
You’ll remember how the Senate Select Committee grilled him on a great many topics within his ministerial portfolio, and a number of the cases of irregularities flagged by the Auditor General in her reports.
In the hearing from 2 weeks ago, they asked him about things that shouldn’t have happened under his watch as the substantive minister. But in today’s hearing, he was in the hot seat for nationality documents he signed for persons who did not qualify.
You’ll remember the cases of Randall James Davis and Charles Francis Knoll Jr., who both entered Belize in September 2012. And in only 3 months, they were given Belizean nationality and Belizean passports they certainly didn’t qualify for.
We questioned him about it October 2015, but this morning, the Senate took their opportunity to ask him about those 2 cases, since they were mentioned in the Auditor General’s report.
Here’s how that back and forth went today:
Hon. Mark Lizarraga- Senator, Business Sector
“Have you looked into these matters specifically? Because you are the person that signed and somehow the process failed. You agree?â€
Hon. Godwin Hulse- Minister of Immigration and Nationality
“Absolutely, before we even got the audit report, when director undertook the preliminary investigations just after the Penner fiasco- three of them actually but two by me and one by Mr. Saldivar surfaced- the director then, that is Miss Marin, I requested immediately to research the file to see what the position was. It turns out, as I recall, they did have permanent residence issued by the previous director Miss Mane. So they looked properly legit, the file looked properly legit with all its minutes on the minute sheet. In the investigation, it seemed that the application, somewhere between the applications accepted by the counter clerk and the processing by the director, something went awry. Those two persons were Miss Pacheco and Mr. Wade. I could not nail down who or where or what but that is one of the reasons and one of the cases why they were recommended to go before the Public Service Commission. Notwithstanding that, however, because they did not swear in we could not find an oath and I ordered that Miss Marin immediately do two things: one, notify all ports of entry, clip the passports so that when they would show up, immediately they would be nullified and take measures to cancel the certificates. That, of course, is on record so you can check with her. That is what was done at that time. So, when it showed up in the audit report I was satisfied that we had already taken the necessary action with those two. Clearly, I was very upset that this had come to me in this way but we were unable to locate how and when the permanent residence was issued but I remember clearly that the permanent residence was issued and signed by the then director miss Ruth Mane and that of course, at the time when the file was presented, seemed very valid.â€
Hon. Eamon Courtney- Senator for the Opposition
“But you are saying the passports haven’t surfaced.â€
Hon. Godwin Hulse
“As far as I know senator…â€
Hon. Eamon Courtney
“So they are using those passports right now, masquerading as Belizeans when you are saying that their nationality has been canceled?â€
Hon. Godwin Hulse
“Could well be.â€
Hon. Eamon Courtney
“You are saying that something went wrong from the counter clerk and in their dealing with it? Are you excluding miss Ruth Mane?â€
Hon. Godwin Hulse
“No, not at all. I will not exclude the director because when the file comes to me I always ensure that the director says, ‘minister, the file is complete and recommended for your approval’ and it’s signed by her so I cannot exclude the director.â€
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