The focus of the sitting of the House of Representatives was on three amendment bill brought to the House. With the passport and visa scandals still up in the air, the amendment bills introduced is to close the gaps when dealing with Immigration, Nationality and Passport. Prime Minister Dean Barrow spoke on the proposed changes in the nationality act.
RT. HON. DEAN BARROW
“What we are trying to do here, Mr. Speaker is to provide for streamlining and enhancing the requirements to obtain Belizean Nationality by registration including the provision that henceforth all applicants for nationality must be in possession of a permanent residency permit declaring their status as a permanent residence for five years of continued residency immediately prior to be a citizen of Belize. The amendments provide for increased penalties for violation of the provisions of the act and these increased penalties would include a fine of $50,000 and a mandatory term of imprisonment from 5 to 15 years, I believe is the range that we set out in the bill. Now there is one aspect of the bill to which I must speak and I want to do so very soberly and clearly. As we had first drafted the bill, it was proposing that the establishment of a nationality scrutinizing committee would be put in place and that would have the responsibility of vetting all applications for citizenship by registration and advising the minister on qualification and suitability of persons for registration, having looked at the files. We originally proposed that this nationality scrutinizing committee should consist of one member from the Belize Council of Churches, one member from the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry, one member from the NTUCB, the CEO of the Ministry of Immigration, the CEO of the Ministry of Human Development, CEO of the Ministry of National Security, a representative from the Solicitor General’s department and the Director of Immigration and Nationality.”
Barrow said the Minister has met with social partners to get them on board and have them appoint a representative to the scrutinizing committee.
RT. HON. DEAN BARROW
Some of the social partners seem to feel that the amendments should be drafted in such a way as to give the scrutinizing committee the power to actually issue the nationality certificates and then when that was discussed at some length and it was explained that under our system of governance, under our constitution, certain functions are reserved for Ministers; that’s the democracy that we operate and while the social partners are just that, partners in terms of the sort of climate in which we operate our constitution and laws, it cannot be that the social partners must supplant the members of Cabinet; must supplant ministers of government; it can’t be that the executive is to be subjugated to or subordinate to social partners; that would fly in the face of the constitution. If we did that with respect, in particular to this Belize Nationality Act, I can see how we would get in trouble with the constitution.
He went on to say that the role of the Committee is to check the documents and ensure that everything is in order.
RT. HON. DEAN BARROW
“We can’t put in the law, something that would immediately be frustrated because you the social partners are not prepared to agree. So, instead what we’ve put is this: the committee should consist of the following: one representative of the religious community to be appointed by the Minister after consultation with both, because we were forgetting the Evangelical Association and we shouldn’t do that, to be appointed by the Minister after consultation with the Belize Council of Churches and the Belize Evangelical Association. So, we will consult you and if you want to make a recommendation, we can assure you that we will accept your recommendation but you will not appoint, because of the position you’ve taken when we first gave you an offer that I personally thought was always going too far but we made the offer, you rejected it. Well this is now how things will proceed.”
The amendment to the Passport Bill looks at the penalties and offences.
RT. HON. DEAN BARROW
“The amendments, Mr. Speaker are intended to widen the net to capture all persons who facilitate the issuance of a passport (1) without lawful authority or (2) knowing that the issue of the passport is contrary to the provisions of this act or (3) engage in conduct for the purpose of obtaining a benefit for himself or another person. Additionally, the penalties for offences against the act are strengthened by increasing the fine of $500 to up to 1 year term in prison up to $50,000 and imprisonment for about 5 to 15 years. Mr. Speaker, just let me make clear that the introduction of the amendments to the legislation are being down against the back drop of administrative changes that have already been made by the Minister, by the Ministry, by the department in an effort to provide improvements. A new nationality certificate administratively, is being introduced which will include security features and will now require the following before issue; you can’t get the certificate unless the photo of the applicant is scanned into the document, the signature and finger print of the recipient of the certificate is on the document, the signature of a member of the scrutinizing committee, who is not connected with the Immigration Department, one of the others on the nationality committee would also have to appear on that document for it to be valid; the signature of the Commissioner of the Supreme Court who administers the Oath of Allegiance must appear on the certificate. So, you would have to be sworn in by the Commissioner before you can get the certificate and it would only then be valid with all these signatures. The signature of the Minister of Immigration and the director of Immigration, additionally, the seal will be affixed at the time of swearing in and signature by the Minister. The certificate and all that it contains we want to do it administratively but to make it absolutely sure we will pass an SI that will set out the new prescribed form.”
The Prime Minister said a restructuring of the Department is taking place at this time.
RT. HON. DEAN BARROW
“The Ministry has, in conjunction with the Public Services ministry, try to restructure and reorganize the department. Some people have been moved out, new people have been moved in; new sections within the department are being created. There will now be five sections: Customer Care, Investigation, and Processing Section that will deal with all applications passport, permanent residency, nationality and visas; A Quality Assurance and Delivery section and an Enforcement section. The reorganization is to try and separate processes to ensure greater accountability and a better system of checks and balances. The change in the structure ensures that the person accepting applications for services from the public is not involved in the investigation and processing or the quality assurance and delivery on the back of those applications. Now the investigation section will be responsible for vetting the applications and conducting the interviews and so on. The enforcement section will also be responsible for border patrols, check points, prosecution and interagency cooperation. Mr. Speaker, I regret that the ministry is trying to conduct a proper inventory and so as it were, start fresh, the nationality section dealing with the application for permanent residency, nationality will in fact be closed to the public for repair, while they try to get everything in order. In the first instance we expect the close to not go beyond the month.”
Prime Minister Barrow provided an update on the investigation in the department.
RT. HON. DEAN BARROW
“Finally Mr. Speaker, we need to make clear that the police department continues the investigations. I believe its ACP Bracket who’s in charge and they have interview several people in the various areas of the department. They have received files turned over by one Mr. Arthur Saldivar; not the 100 or 150 or whatever he said; it is a total of 5 files. They are working with these. The FIU is of course proceeding with its investigation and the Auditor General on October 15 gave the department notice of its intention to carry out a comprehensive investigation and audit into the issuance of nationality certificates, passports and visas for the period from April 2011 to September 2013. They have requested from the department all the database for nationality and passport, the policies and procedures; the database for the issuance of visas and the work started at Monday October 28 2013.”
The Prime Minister said that he is confident that going forward the Immigration Department will be much more effective.