We've been reporting for weeks on the investigation into a hustle at the Immigration Department. Fake receipts were issued to passport applicants at the Belize City office. Sometime after these persons went to pick up their passports only to find out their money did not go into the government coffers - they had been caught up in a scale.
Today in Belmopan, we today asked the CEO for Immigration Tanya Santos about the status of the investigation:
Jules Vasquez
"How many passports were illegitimately issued using this false receipt system?"
Tanya Santos, CEO Immigration
"I'm not that liberty to say that at the moment, but there were there were a few that we haven't countered and people are also coming in to report it or also wanting to claim their passport that they paid for."
Jules Vasquez
"And then when they come to say they paid for it, you all don't have a Legitimate revenue collecter's receipt for that payment they made."
Tanya Santos, CEO Immigration
"No we don't and so it's an issue we're internally resolving as well attempting to address and correct on behalf of the applicants."
Jules Vasquez
"Is it a concern? For you that this fundamental thing that your office is in charge of safeguarding has been somebody was running a scam on it."
Tanya Santos, CEO Immigration
"Well the scam isn't per se with the passport, the scam is really an accounting, a financial issue. It could have occurred in any particular department of any ministry. It really is the for falsification and fraudulent production of receipts and that could have happened in police, that could have happened in lands, that could have happened in anywhere But the fact that it's related to passports makes it you know a lot more egregious So yes, we do take it seriously, which is why we wasted no time in once we found out we took the necessary steps and investigation is still underway."
"We have made reports already, we have staff who have made reports and It's taking its course."
Jules Vasquez
"Have you all made a police report."
Tanya Santos, CEO Immigration
"Not as yet. We have staff who have documented their reports and they are in the process of making that police report."
Jules Vasquez
"Is it an issue where the government has lost out on a significant amount of revenue? because we know passports are very expensive to make them, to order them is very expensive. So has the government experienced a significant loss and have these passports or might these passports have ended up in nefarious hands since it was a fraudulent process that someone was selling the passports."
Tanya Santos, CEO Immigration
"I don't think it's ended up in nefarious hands But anything is possible at this moment as the investigation continues and yes there is a loss of revenue and we are still determining the extent of that loss of revenue I don't really want to talk anymore about it because really it's a matter that I think the more I talk the more it could compromise our case, so I will leave it at that."
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