Conflicting testimonies at Senate hearings

Posted: Friday, October 13, 2017. 3:31 p.m. CST.

By BBN Staff: Immigration Chief Executive Officer, Edmund Zuniga and Police Commissioner Allen Whyie have given the Senate Special Select Committee conflicting testimonies with respect to the starting point for criminal investigations into cases of forgery.

Zuniga testified before the committee this week, that the police are within their rights to commence an investigation into any of the numerous incidents of fraud cited in the Auditor General’s Special Audit Report of the Immigration and Nationality Department; however, Whylie testified in July that the department needs to be prompted.

Zuniga, a former Auditor General, said: “the Commissioner of Police, to take on investigations without prompting from anybody.”

He also conceded that the investigations into reports of fraud should have already begun.

Whylie had testified that he is waiting for the Committee to finish the hearings, and for further orders from the Director of Public Prosecutions before the department will carry out any investigations. He told the Senators that he is confident that the DPP will advise them to pursue some of the matters contained in the report.

The report pointed to more than 2000 persons receiving nationality certificates and other documentation that they were not qualified to receive under the Laws of Belize.

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