Government Ministers Also Wrote-in for People to Get Nationality Despite Irregular Documents

Ministers of government also illegally intervened in the nationality process when there is no such provision for them to do so in the Belize Nationality Act, pointed out by the Auditor General in her findings. Appendix ‘F’ to the Special Audit on Nationality confirms that seven current ministers and ministers of state and seven former ministers and ministers of state, in addition to two private citizens, wrote the Department or spoke to someone there. They requested various files of applicants for processing when, in some cases, they had not qualified for nationality or their records were incomplete. The report states that auditors could not find whether ministers were compensated for these interventions, which would be another illegal act. Among the current ministers and ministers of state listed are two interventions by Edmond Castro; six by Erwin Contreras; nine by Manuel Heredia Junior – all but one for members of the Harmouche family of San Pedro, which was mentioned elsewhere as a major party to the nationality, passport and visa scheme. Rene Montero came in for a few; so did Pablo Marin and John Saldivar, and even then Deputy Prime Minister Gaspar Vega asked for one. In the case of Health Minister Marin, the letter appeared in one file, but concerned multiple persons. Past Ministers mentioned included Gabriel Martinez, Eden Martinez, Michael Hutchinson, Santiago Castillo Junior, Ramon Witz, Carlos Perdomo, who held the Immigration portfolio at one time, and Elvin Penner himself. The interventions took place on a regular basis between 2011 and 2013 and the ministers appeared to be concerned that these files were taking too long to be processed. As we said, the Audit Report is likely to be a hot topic at Friday’s House Meeting.