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The Senate Select Committee also questioned him about a note he wrote on November 29, 2012 to the former Acting Director of Immigration, Maria Marin.

In it, he instructs quote, “Ms. Marin, Mr. Roger Tien will be applying for visas for visitors from Mainland, China. Kindly peruse and facilitate if all is in order.â€￾ End quote. Apparently, this “Mr. Roger Tienâ€￾ approached the Immigration Department at that time asking them to approve visas for persons who were supposed to visit to look at prospective investment opportunities.

The Auditor General then flagged the visa applicants because their names then showed up on Nationality applications, documents that they didn’t qualify for.

So, the Senate asked him for an explanation on that memo, and how his instructions are different from his Cabinet colleagues. Here’s how that back and forth went:

Hon. Godwin Hulse- Minister of Immigration and Nationality

“I recall clearly that Mr. Tien presented some credentials from the chamber of commerce of his state where he came from in China and met with myself and in that meeting again was Miss Marin, Miss Main, and the CEO. He suggested to us that he wanted to bring some investors in Belize for a short trip to look at investment possibilities in various things. That was the gist of that conversation. As a result of that, as you will see, this was just a note to say to Miss Marin that he will be applying for visas for visitors from mainland China, kindly peruse and facilitate if everything is in order. It’s a general statement to her to say that: ok, look at what they want to do and carry on. It was no specific instructions to help A, B, C, D, because I didn’t know who A, B, C, D is and I do not care. And so that is the genesis of that. I do note in the report that it shows up on the applications of other people and I don’t know how that managed to happen because that was not the intention at all. So, persons who grabbed a hold of this and used that erroneously also should be called to task because this is what would happen normally with any minister sitting in any group with anybody who comes and says: look, I need visas so…You are bringing a group of businessmen, that was the concept behind this piece of notification written there.â€￾

“As you said earlier, the said note that you sent to Misses Marin was used by other persons. I suppose that they felt that because it was signed by yourself that it would probably assist them in getting what they wanted. You know how that goes. Unfortunately, but it never should have been because it was never intended that way and it was given to Miss Marin directly in the presence of everybody.â€￾

Hon. Eamon Courtney- Senator for the Opposition

“I want to be frank on it, it goes back to the impression that is created that with a minister’s letter things will happen. So, it gives the impression that this letter can be used. And in fact, people improperly used it. Do you see the problem with something like this?â€￾

Hon. Godwin Hulse

“No, none at all; I don’t see how that could be construed. Now, with respect to the Minister of Immigration, myself as the Minister of Immigration, I have authority to do that. No other minister has that, I say to my staff, who is there, we are sitting in this meeting, here is this gentleman who is saying I want to bring some investors, everybody is there. That’s why the minister is there to say well look, they will be applying, deal with it and do what has to be done. That is a standard order that would come from any minister to his staff.â€￾

Hon. Eamon Courtney

“I was just raising with you the issue of the impression that is given in the ministry, in the Immigration Department, that if the minister- we have tons of them here- on minister’s list, minister’s approval and then it’s just processed and it then turns out...â€￾

Hon. Godwin Hulse

“Yes, but other ministers don’t have that authority. They don’t have that authority. The law is very clear; section 5, subsection 4, the immigration gives the minister that power.â€￾

Hon. Eamon Courtney

“I’m not questioning your authority, you know. I’m not focusing on that at all.â€￾

Hon. Godwin Hulse

“You are talking about the impression.â€￾

Hon. Eamon Courtney

“That’s what I’m saying that whether you can see how this gives an impression, in the context of what we are dealing with, I’m not saying that you did anything wrong, we haven’t reached there. All we are saying is that the culture, the impression of what we’ve heard from witnesses and all these things we’ve seen here on a minister’s list, on a minister’s request, etc., that it feeds into it and here is an excellent example because it was actually misused.â€￾