Minister speaks on the corruption in the Vital Statistics Department
Marleny Castellanos, a woman accused of being the mastermind in a long-standing and very lucrative hustle, has been slapped with more than twenty charges for immigration offences. It is alleged that Castellanos used documents from the Vital Statistics Department to fraudulently obtain nationality certificates for many immigrants in Belize. Now corruption at the Vital Stats Department is like rice and beans to Belize, just not nearly as good. Today, Attorney-General Wilfred Elrington told us that despite the rampant and widespread corruption at the department, and despite the Marleny Castellanos case, no investigation has been launched. But he did say that they are putting steps in place to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington, Attorney-General
Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington
“I think it is being looked after. In fact a reference to that was made only yesterday by Minister Hulse and basically what he was saying is that those people apparently would have wanted to disclose their contact person but his suggestion was that the Police had acted too swiftly in charging them. If you charge people who have information to give many times they will not be prepared to disclose it, but if you had worked out a deal with them they probably would have been prepared to tell you what the details are. But it is something that is very worrying. But I will also tell you that that type of behaviour in the Vital Statistics office has been going on for time immemorial. And I know people who have benefitted from it. It’s a big racket…a big racket. We are trying to clean it out. We are trying our best and I can tell you that under our watch that is not happening.”
Reporter
“Can you tell us what exactly you’re doing? Has an investigation been launched to identify where the loopholes are because it can’t keep happening?”
Wilfred ‘Sedi’ Elrington
“No, we haven’t launched any investigation. What we have done is we have gotten rid of certain personnel. We’ve put in new people. We’re putting in an entirely new system with all kinds of security features now. As a matter of fact in a short while when you go to apply for your birth certificate or your death certificate you’re going to find yourself confronted with a camera and that is going to photograph you so that we know who applied when, and there can be no hanky panky.”
According to Elrington, the system should be digitized by the end of July.
This corrupt gov. Sounds like a scratched record everyday they use the same old excuses and no one is found guilty no one has gone to jail with all the corruption that has been perpetrated since this corrupt gov. Has been in office and it’s been so blatant that even a blind man can see the total corruption going on not one person has gone to jail no wonder their is so much crime in this country I surely hope the new american ambassador is paying attention to the communistic actions of this pm and gov. They are worse than Cuba or Venezuela watch out America we have total corruption going on in this gov. And bigotry hopefully this new american ambassador is not sleeping like the last one.
Yes, you would know Sedi because you also have taken advantage of it to you and your family in N.Y benefit. I commented when this story first broke and these types of acts should be criminally prosecuted. You don’t need to broker a damn deal from anyone to find out who’s culpable in Vital Statistics office. So, that nonsense about it might be hard to prosecute anyone because the police arrested too early is bullshit. There go you and Hulse again with that rhetorical bull. When Iposted when this post first broke I stated that those applications were ushered in oftentimes in the latter part of the afternoon and 99.99 % of the time it was only one person who received them. Also, if the record are checked, it’s usually one processor on the order of a supervisor in the office. Whether that processor was complicit or not, is left to be seen. Also, majority of the recommendations or affidavit of knowledge on the applications were done by the same person and religious minister. So, that’s an easy trail to follow. So, stop yoh nonsense Elrington.
You are correct about the new Ambassador of the USA. He is no slouchy college roommate of BO like the last one. His appointment is being heralded on his record as a social engineer and activist jurist. Don’t be fooled. Belize will be analyzed under his watch with more vigor than ever before.