Godwin Hulse refutes claims that he knew Penner had taken immigration files

The Auditor-General’s report on the Won Hong Kim/Elvin Penner immigration scandal is still not available for public consumption. The result of the investigation was handed over to the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Immigration three months ago, but it has been kept under tight wraps. But not air-tight, it seems, and a leaked copy was made available to COLA. COLA has in turn provided the media with a sneak peek, though not the entire report. At a press conference last week, COLA revealed two particular points in the report, allegedly made by senior nationality staffer Ady Pacheco. It had to do with nationality files which mysteriously disappeared. According to the report, Ady Pacheco told the audit team it wasn’t mysterious at all. She allegedly claimed that in September 2013, Penner came into the department and took a number of files, including the Won Hong Kim file. She further claimed that she made a list of the files removed by Penner and sent it via letter to Minister Godwin Hulse. So today, when we caught up with Hulse in court on another matter, we asked him. 

Godwin Hulse, Minister of Immigration

Godwin Hulse

“I know absolutely nothing about that. That’s news to me. If Ms. Pacheco indicates that then she has to produce that evidence….that after the investigation he came for files…I know absolutely nothing about that.  I am telling you what we know…the only letter we know about is that prior to the Won Hong Kim file, which also includes the Won Hong Kim file…a letter was sent to the Minister with several files including that file for his signature. That’s where we are. I don’t know about anything after this thing burst and Mr. Penner went back because I doubt that would have happened. And if it happened then she is on the line because the following day after we found that matter Minister Penner was removed from the ministry.”

Reporter

“Sir when you say a letter was sent to the Minister you’re referring to Minister of State Penner…but she is saying, as I understand it, that a letter was sent to you….that she sent a letter to you with a list of the files that Elvin Penner took out of the department.”

Godwin Hulse

“Never sent any letter to me…absolutely not…categorically no. So if she says that that is absolutely incorrect. I can say to you unequivocally and categorically and accurately that the letter which was sent to Minister Penner with the files…all of us have seen that. The Police have seen that. The Ministry has seen that. The Auditor-General has seen that letter that said that Minister Penner received those files on that particular day for his perusal. Finished! Now we don’t have a letter, now do we have the file from Won Hong Kim. We don’t have a letter from Minister Penner or his secretary saying I have looked at these files and returned them to the department. We don’t have that. So we cannot at this stage say it. That is why we keep saying we don’t have the Minister Penner file cause we cannot say if they were returned or not returned. He says it was returned, they say it wasn’t, so it’s he said, they said. There is no chain of custody of that. There is chain of custody saying that it went to him. But there’s no chain of custody to say it came back from him. That’s where we are with that. But there’s no letter that was written to me saying that.”