CEO Santos Reveals Corruption Concerns at Western Border

The Ministry of Immigration has made significant progress in addressing concerns that arose from a sickout several weeks ago at the Western Border. CEO Tanya Santos revealed that an internal investigation found no evidence of a coordinated sickout. However, she says the timing of the employees’ sickness and return to office remain questionable. Furthermore, that investigation also revealed instances of alleged corruption at the Western Border.

 

Tanya Santos, Chief Executive Officer, Ministry of Immigration

“We have addressed that. We have completed our investigation. There was as we expected, no evidence of a coordinated sickout. We did find through the investigation several areas of complaints and dissatisfaction by the staff and we highlighted to them what those were in letters and also some of them who wrote through their attorneys, advising them what is the process when they have these grievances and there were also reports during that investigation of some level of corruption happening there at the Western Border overall.”

 

Reporter

“What are some of those and are those being investigating?”

 

Tanya Santos

“Yes, we are always busy at the Immigration Department working on situations like that as they reveal themselves. As was mentioned by one of the union members at that time, it is not my purview as the CEO to tell a member of staff that you are not sick, especially if you get what appears to be a legitimate doctor’s paper. However the timing, the other circumstances we are aware of and the timing of their sickness, their return to office, the end of their sickness period and other circumstances surrounding their complaints and grievances are still questionable.”

 

In response, the Ministry of Immigration has set up an internal grievance committee made up of senior staff, external administrators, a retired public officer, legal counsel, and the CEO.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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