Today, substantive Minister of Immigration, Hon. Godwin Hulse, spoke to the media about the investigations that were initiated by the Ministry of Immigration and Nationality in the wake of the recent passport scandal.

First, he spoke about the two senior immigration officers from the Nationality section, Gordon Wade and Ady Pacheco, who were made to answer certain questions regarding missing files from their department.

Amandala understands that they were given a specific timeframe within which they should respond to those questions, and if their answers are not satisfactory, they will be recommended for termination. Hulse said, “The Director [of Immigration, Maria Marin] was satisfied that there were enough questions that she needed to ask both Ms. Pacheco and Mr. Wade to respond to. There was a timeframe given, which I understand, is 2 weeks. As far as I know, up until Friday evening, a response has come through their attorney saying that there is nothing to answer to. That has given the Director need to ask the Solicitor General to respond to him [the attorney] as advisor to the Government, that in fact she will now recommend that the case, if he so advises, goes to the Public Services Commission, so that they can determine what to do.”

According to News 5, the report on the Nationality section was concluded on October 4, and the report on the Passport section was concluded on November 11; however, three immigration officers have been suspended since last September, while the two senior officers have only recently been put under scrutiny.

When questioned as to the reason for the delay, Hulse said, “Well I don’t know that the report for the Nationality section was concluded on October 4. What I do know is that the Ministry went in to corral all the files for passport issuance, all the files for nationality, all the files for PR, get them in order chronologically, see what files would have been missing, and that exercise was extensive, and it was only just completed, and before you move against people, that had to be finished before a decision could be made as to what we would do with these people.”

He further explained the reasons behind the suspension of the three immigration officers, saying, “Passport is different, and it is an application that you can look at and find out whether it was regular or irregular, and that was the case with the three persons. The fact of that matter is that the first person on suspension was the person who accepted the application. The rules are clear – if you come before me, I am supposed to look at you and see to it that it is you who is applying.

“He [the data entry clerk] couldn’t do that because the person applying was obviously not Won Hong Kim. The person who does the data capture is to ensure that whoever is sitting in front of the camera and whose picture he takes is the person, and clearly that was not the person because the man was not here, so that was easy to determine.”

“The supervisor in this case, Mrs. Sharon Neal-Flowers, was supposed to ensure that all the ducks lined up before she approved, and clearly the ducks didn’t line up, so those are [some of] the questions they are going to answer to the commission”, Hulse stated.

He then outlined the process for application for nationality, which he stated is very different, and said that it is through that process that they have to determine how the process “fell down” and how is it that Mr. Kim had a certificate without the Director seeing his file and without the Head of Department actually getting the file.

He declared, “Ms. Pacheco received a file. The file – which was not fully completed – was [then] placed on Mr. Wade’s desk, and from there somehow, the Minister [of State] got a [Nationality] certificate.”

He went on to say that “too much has happened in the [Immigration and Nationality] Department; [and since] they are the people responsible, they need to answer how is it that a certificate got to the Minister [of State] to sign; who prepared it, who gave it to him and why, with a file that was not complete.”

A hearing for the three immigration officers that were initially suspended is to be held tomorrow, Tuesday, February 18. Minister Hulse informed us that he has since received a letter from the Public Services Commission stating that his presence is not required; however, he stated that “none of the officers can ever use the excuse that they were pressured by a Minister,” because he met with the Director and CEO of Immigration, as well as Mrs. Sharon Neal-Flowers on September 4, 2013 and instructed them to call him if anybody came to them with any “nonsense”, including ex-Minister Penner.

As to the details of the internal reports, Hulse said, “It has to be made public in due course, but first it has to go the Public Services Commission and all the places it has to go through, and [then] the reports will be given [to the public].”