The intensive and wide-ranging multiple investigations into corruption at the Immigration Department have allegedly been ongoing for at least two months now. We say allegedly because there is no real evidence of any investigation into corruption. At this point we can’t even say that a so-called Financial Intelligence Unit investigation even exists, because head of the FIU Marilyn Williams refused to even confirm that it is so. Nothing has been divulged of an investigation by the Auditor-General, and as to the Police…well, News Five has confirmed that they weren’t pointed in a totally different direction altogether. What we do know is that Elvin Penner, the Minister of State who personally facilitated a passport for an accused South Korean criminal, and made false declarations in doing so, has gotten away scot free. Today head of the National Crimes Investigation Branch Assistant Commissioner Russell Blackett commented on the matter and it is not in line with what has been said before by the Minister of Immigration. The Police were called in on October ninth and according to Minister Godwin Hulse, they were tasked with investigating all aspects of the immigration scandal.
Godwin Hulse, Minister of Immigration (FILE October 9, 2013)
Godwin Hulse
“The Police was invited in at four-thirty yesterday by the Director of Immigration and the C.E.O. who are the competent officials and the right persons to invite them to look at all aspects of the situation including files that are missing and files held by Mister Saldivar’s report.”
Russell Blackett
Russell Blackett, Head, National Crimes Investigation Branch
“We work in our investigation to uncover if there is any truth. We must be mindful that people are very mischievous and when things happen, people try to cover up. So you will find that questions will go about but I can assure you we are doing our investigation from a professional point of view.”
Reporter
“Sir there have been other situations, investigations where the department has actually held press conferences to update the public. Why has there not been such a press conference on this important matter?”
Russell Blackett
“This concerns documentation and a lot of documents. We must be meticulous, we must analyze and we must be careful what we do and what we say. We know that we have people employed in these locations and we must be very careful not to be spreading and calling names and giving information until we get to the bottom of this.”
Reporter
“So what update can you provide?”
Russell Blackett
“Well so far we have done some checks. We have noted that most of the files are copies. We heard about a hundred and fifty files, but so far it was basically about five and we are continuing the work on that.”
Reporter
“Was there any indication that there was a parallel system within the passport section of the Immigration Department operating?”
Russell Blackett
“Well if that is so we have not uncovered that as yet.”
That’s not surprising since as we told you, the Police were not given carte blanche to investigate wrong-doing and criminal actions in the Immigration Department. Instead, they have been tasked only with determining how files from the Immigration Department were leaked to attorney Arthur Saldivar, and who was involved in getting them out. At no time has the Department looked at Elvin Penner and his role in the Wonhong Kim passport scandal or the mass issuance of nationality documents to questionable individuals. But action was taken against three Immigration Officers. Sharon Neal, Omar Phillips and Erwin Robinson were put on leave after the scandal broke on September nineteenth.
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