Passport Immigration and Nationality Department (2011 – 2013)
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OFFICE OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL OF BELIZE SPECIAL AUDIT - PASSPORT IMMIGRATION AND NATIONALITY DEPARTMENT FOR THE PERIOD 2011 - 2013 Office of the Auditor General Second Floor Garden City Building Almond Drive Belmopan City Belize, C.A. P.O. Box 7 Tel. No. 822-2850/0208/0214 (General Office) 828-4362 (Auditor General) Fax No. 501-822-1041 Email: [email protected] May 31, 2016 Honourable Dean O. Barrow Prime Minister Minister of Finance Office of the Prime Minister Sir Edney Cain Building Belmopan Dear Prime Minister: In Accordance with Section 120 (4) of the Belize Constitution 1981, and Section 16(3) of the Finance and Audit (Reform) Act No 12 of 2005, I hereby present a Special Passport Report on the Immigration and Nationality Department for period January1, 2012 – September 30, 2013. I shall be grateful if you would cause the report to be laid before the House of Representatives and the Senate in due course. Respectfully submitted, DOROTHY A. BRADLEY (MRS) Auditor General TABLE OF CONTENTS PASSPORT SECTION III Acronyms..........................................................................................................................page i Executive Summary..........................................................................................................page iii Audit Mandate .................................................................................................................page 1 Background/Reason for Audit..........................................................................................page 1 Audit Objectives................................................................................................................page 1 What we examined.............................................................................................................page 2 What we found and Recommendations.............................................................................page 2 Acronyms PR- Permanent Residence INS- Immigration and Nationality Service BECIP – Belize Economic Citizenship Investment Program BNA – Belize Nationality Application BMPS – Belmopan Station BWBS – Belize Western Border Station BNBS – Belize Northern Border Station PGIA – Phillip Goldson International Airport OIC – Officer in Charge BMRPIS – Belize Machine Readable Passport Issuance System BPIS – Belize Passport Issuance System BMRPAIP – Belize Machine Readable Passport Application and Issuance Process MRPS – Machine Readable Passport System QA – Quality Assurance FO – Finance Officer FO Number – Financial Orders Number USR_FNAME – User First Name USR_LNAME – User Last Name USR Step – User Step App Step Date – Application Step Date TEP – Temporary Employment Permits DINS – Director of Immigration and Nationality Service PRF – Permanent Residence File S.I – Statutory Instrument i VSU – Vital Statistic Unit HQ – Headquarters CIDAPS – Central Intelligence Data and Analysis Processing System CRO – Criminal Records Office JICC – Joint Intelligence Coordinating Center CIB – Crimes Investigation Branch ACP – Assistant Commissioner of Police JP – Justice of the Peace HIV – Human Immunodeficiency Virus VDRL – Venereal Disease Research Laboratory DOA – Date of Arrival FIU – Financial Intelligence Unit W/Sergeant – Woman Sergeant ROC – Republic of China ID Cards – Identification Cards IT – Information Technology CITO – Central Information Technology Office SSB – Social Security Board UK – United Kingdom US – United States CITO – Central Information Technology Office CSME – Caribbean Single Market Economy ii EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. On September 30, 2013 the Office of the Auditor General received a copy of a memorandum from the Immigration and Nationality Department regarding some missing visas. 2. The Office of the Auditor General initially decided to undertake a Compliance Audit of the Department’s Visa Section. However, during the preliminary phase of the Visa Audit the Immigration Department was faced with a passport scandal and on that basis the audit scope was broaden to encompass both the Passport and Nationality Sections. 3. The audit covers the period 2011 to 2013 and starts with the Visa examination progressing into the Nationality and Passport Examinations. The individual reports are lengthy due to the different findings and the manner in which they were executed. The presentation is done in sections: Visa - Section I, Nationality - Section II, Passport Section - III and Other findings – IV. Appendices presented, for each section, reflect a small percentage of total findings because of the volume of actual findings. Passport – Section III 4. Examination pertaining to acquisition, issuance to Officers in Charge of Passport Section and the Belize Passport Issuance System (BPSI) were carried out. This also included the application for and issuance of Passports. 5. We found that the Passport Issuance System was breached. The Data Capture Operator did not always take a live facial image of applicants. We found that passport application forms were photocopied and did not have the identical surname as that in the passports. One such example was that of Passport P0246777 issued to Wong Hong Kim. 6. The Passport Report highlights numerous incidents of irregularities. The processing history for officers is included to place emphasis on the breakdown of the Department’s internal control for policy and procedures. 7. Our audit examination found 55,579 passports were approved without biometric checks during the period investigated April 2011 to September 2013. Numerous inconsistencies were observed including that of passports with numbers printed inside which differed from the number on the page with biometric data.. An issued passport was from a stolen iii series. The series were discovered missing on 29th August, 2005 from the Passport Office, Belmopan and the series were never recovered. 8. The IT Manager failed to inactivate officers from the System, who were no longer assigned to the Passport Section, thereby allowing their profiles to remain active in the system. This was of concern to the Audit Team for which the IT Manager was question. The Team had access to the System and it was noted that upon questioning, the IT Manager immediately started deleting the status of the inactive officers. 9. The Immigration Department lacked accountability as many stolen, unaccounted and apparent fraudulent Manual Jumbo and Ordinary Passports were found among the cancelled passports presented to Audit. Audit encountered many cases whereby applicants presented temporary/emergency manual passports to renew during the period 2011 to 2013. We ascertained that those passports were approved by the Director Immigration and Nationality. 10. For the period investigated we found no evidence in the Department’s confidential files informing Officers in the Passport Section about the stolen passport series. It was also observed that an alleged human trafficker/People Smugglers were able to obtain Belizean Nationality by Registration. 11. Numerous names of foreigners who may have entered Belize on visas and received their Belizean nationality within days, weeks or months have been linked to our list of missing Passport applications (Passport report Appendix I). These cases of suspected fraud may have a direct link with missing Passport applications and un-presented nationality files. 12. Audit was able to identify some passport recommenders involved in the processing of irregular applications and fraudulent Nationality Certificates (Passport Report Section 58). It is anticipated that the Report presented will provide the Immigration Department with pertinent information required to effect meaningful reform regarding policy formulation and implementation. It should also lend to the building of necessary controls to better effect policies, changes and procedures. iv AUDIT INVESTIGATION PASSPORT SECTION - SECTION III IMMIGRATION AND NATIONALITY DEPARTMENT APRIL 2011 TO SEPTMBER 2013 ________________________________________________________________ Introduction: The following comments, suggestions and recommendations arise as a result of an Audit investigation of the application, approval and issuance of Belize Passports including the 3M Belize Passport Issuance System (BPIS) and other related documents maintained by the Immigration and Nationality Services for the period April 2011 to 30th September 2013. Audit Mandate 2. This audit investigation has been conducted in accordance with Section 14 of the Finance and Audit Act 2005 which states: “If at any time it appears to the Auditor General that any fraud, or serious loss or serious irregularity has occurred in the receipt, custody or expenditure of public moneys or in the receipt, custody, issue, sale, transfer or delivery of any stamps, securities, stores or other Government property of any kind whatsoever, or in the accounting for the same, he shall immediately bring the matter to the notice of the Minister of Finance”. Background/Reason for audit 2. 2 The Office of the Auditor General initially decided to conduct an audit investigation after receiving a memorandum from the Immigration and Nationality Department on October 09 2013, which reported a case of missing visas. Based on the memorandum received, the Office decided to undertake a Compliance Audit of the Visa Section. The objective and scope of the audit was further developed to include the Passport and Nationality Sections of the Immigration and Nationality Department. Audit Objectives Passports 3. Our objectives concerning the Acquisition