Today in Belmopan, the Senate hearings on Immigration irregularities continued with Auditor General Dorothy Bradley and her Chief Auditor, Carla Faber, giving testimony once again.

It was the Auditor General’s third day on the stand, while the chief Auditor has only had 2 days. But, in that time, the Senators on the Senate Select Committee have been combing through the 3 volumes of her audit. They continued to probe deep into all parts of the visa portion, and late this evening, they finally closed their questioning on visas issued between 2011 and 2013. They’re now looking at her report on passports now, and today, our news team was there once again for the hearings
Here are a few choice excerpts:

Hon. Eamon Courtenay - PUP Senator
"How would you characterise the level of control if the stock of visas in the immigration department?"

Dorothy Bradley - Auditor General
"It was clear to us that you can characterise it as being mismanaged."

Hon. Eamon Courtenay - PUP Senator
"I was asking about your concerns with respect to the process which led to the issuance of nationality certificates. Auditor General indicated that you had serious concerns about that process and I'm wondering if any specifics could be shared with us."

Carla Faber - Lead Auditor
"We realise that they didn't follow the process. People came into the country, received visas and thereafter nationality and Belizean passport in a short space of time."

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
"The exit interview you said were held over the course of 3 days and there was one with Minister Hulse; when was that interview?"

Carla Faber - Lead Auditor
"I think that was the 3rd."

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
"How long was that interview for?"

Carla Faber - Lead Auditor
"That took the whole day but he wasn't there the entire time."

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
"I'm asking when he was there, how long was he there for?"

Carla Faber - Lead Auditor
"About an hour and a half to two maybe."

Hon. Elena Smith - Labour/Civil Society Senator
"So there were no questions on these matters that were raised, no whatsoever?"

Carla Faber - Lead Auditor
"What I could say is that Ms. Marin was taking notes."

Hon. Elena Smith - Labour/Civil Society Senator
“So that was about the exchange that you had, that you shared verbally your findings and recommendations. The persons whom you share with, some of them took notes but they had no questions related to specifics that you shared.â€￾

Carla Faber - Lead Auditor
“No, the only thing that she said was -- beside the fact that she disagreed with hindering our audit by not handing the records over was that she could not understand with all the measure she had put in place that those things went pass her. She signed on things that shouldn’t have been signed.â€￾

Hon. Mark Lizarraga - Business Senator
“So she was shocked that she had signed documents that she shouldn’t have signed?â€￾

Carla Faber - Lead Auditor
“Yes.â€￾

Hon. Mark Lizarraga - Business Senator
“What was the reaction of the other person, including the minister when you made this verbal report to them? Were they caught by surprise, were they in disbelief, were they in denial, were they shocked?â€￾

Carla Faber - Lead Auditor
“With respect of the minister, when we told him he said that he has started to revoke some of the nationalities and that he wanted to draw from us so he could continue to revoke those that we had found.â€￾

Hon. Mark Lizarraga - Business Senator
“So he had known that some of this was occurring before?â€￾

Carla Faber - Lead Auditor
“That’s what he told us.â€￾

Dorothy Bradley - Auditor General
“I just want to place emphasis there that on every occasion it was brought to the attention of the different representatives from the management level while once we had concerns and it was discussed over time so that while something was not handed, a paper of a document was not given in every instance they were informed of our findings so as we were progressing during the audit. So yes they were informed.â€￾

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
 Ã¢â‚¬Å“In relation to these appendices and to the irregularities that you identified, who is the person that you would identify as the person responsible for this; the person who should have ensured that these irregularities did not occur?â€￾

Dorothy Bradley - Auditor General
“I would want to say at the end of the day the ultimate would be the director or the person in charge of the department.â€￾

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
 Ã¢â‚¬Å“So in Belmopan you would say it would be the director?â€￾

Dorothy Bradley - Auditor General
“The director is responsible overall.â€￾

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
 Ã¢â‚¬Å“Remind me again who the director was at the time during the audit period.â€￾

Carla Faber - Lead Auditor
“Miss Maria Marin.â€￾

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
 Ã¢â‚¬Å“And in those irregularities we found in...â€￾

Dorothy Bradley - Auditor General
“Then the officer in charge would the person...â€￾

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
 Ã¢â‚¬Å“The officer in charge of the border station. So that the director would not be involved at any time with the issuance of visas for the border station?â€￾

Dorothy Bradley - Auditor General
“I would prefer for them to respond to that because while you have the officer in charge for the different border stations, I am not sure what happens between the director and the officer in charge remotely so I don’t know.â€￾

When the hearings adjourned for a brief lunch break, the Senate Sub-Committee Chairman Aldo Salazar granted the press an interview discussing from his perspective how it has been going. 

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
 Ã¢â‚¬Å“Well I would say it’s going well. We anticipated that the sessions with the Auditor General would be drawn out; I’m not sure we’ll be able to get through with her testimony today if not perhaps by the next session.â€￾

Reporter
“Sir has it been what you expected so far?â€￾

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
 Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yes it’s been what I expected. The Auditor General’s report was submitted and we’re just going through what is in there so we’re asking to highlight certain portions which are of concern to us. So it’s going as expected. The report itself does point to what the Auditor General has deemed as breaches in proper process, I think that’s obvious for anybody to see when reading the report that the Auditor General has highlighted certain areas which she had concerns with. Like I said there are some issues like for example one of the issues we raised the last time was that in relation to the visas themselves, the issuance of the visas we couldn’t find any irregularity in relation to the issuance of the visas themselves but really what the Auditor General was pointing at is irregularity in relation to the nationality and passport thereafter but not necessarily with the visa. Yes the Auditor General has raised if you could look at the report she has raised some areas of concern so I wouldn’t want to say what my finding is, that is for the committee.â€￾

“The purpose of this questioning is to establish for me personally is to establish what was the process, what was the proper process in issuing visas and then in order for us to be able to determine then whether there was a breach of that process. So that is really our role to establish what the process was according to the Auditor General’s view and to see what breaches occur if any.â€￾

Daniel Ortiz
“How many hearings do you all estimate that the Auditor General will be your witness?â€￾

Hon. Aldo Salazar - Chairman, Senate Select Committee
“I am hopeful for one more hearing but please don’t sue me if that don’t turn out to be correct.â€￾ 

As you heard, the Chairman is hoping to close their questioning of the Auditor General in one more session. We are told the next witness they will call is Former Acting Director Maria Marin. As you heard today, the Auditors pointed fingers at her and Former Immigration Minister Godwin Hulse for not ultimately catching and preventing the mass irregularities the audit team identified.

We do know that Marin is eager to get her chance to testify and clear her name. The Hearings will break for 2 weeks during the Christmas season, and they resume early in the New Year on January 4. That’s when Maria Marin will have her first day giving testimony. She will return on January 11, and on January 18, Dorothy Bradley will return to clear up all final questions.