The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS 

Tribune Staff Reporter 

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

ACTING Chief Passport Officer Nicholas Symonette said a previously made decision outside the Ministry of Foreign Affairs weakened the Passport Office’s verification process, creating an opportunity for fraudulent activity.  

He declined to specify who made the decision or when it was made but defended the protocols the office now follows to prevent fraud.

His comments came after Free National Movement Senator Darren Henfield expressed concerns about the protocols at the Passport Office following Monday’s arraignment of six people, including a 17-year-old Haitian boy, who allegedly used forged documents to obtain Bahamian passports. Three of the accused were charged with two counts of possessing forged documents, uttering forged documents, and fraud by false pretences. The juvenile and two others were charged with conspiracy to commit fraud by false pretences.  

Mr Symonette said “at some point in time”, protocols were weakened so the passport renewal process would be less rigorous.

He said a decision had been made so that people “not be asked for anything else”.

“What that was doing, that was creating a system where people were just clicking and renewing without any review,” he added.

“We have done away with that. We restored the protocols to what they should be, which is all documents are reviewed regardless of whether you are a renewal application or you are a first-time applicant.”

He said he was not alarmed by the discovery of people engaging in fraud with passports, adding that this was not a new issue.

“Around the world, identity fraud and document fraud are on the rise,” he said. “It’s nothing new, and it’s nothing new to the Passport Office. The Passport Office, every year, has been maintaining a large group of files that are suspected of fraudulent activity. The only difference now is that we are taking action on these cases, when cases come before us, when cases are found, which all of these cases are found out based on an audit that started at the Passport Office — not someone tipping us off — us doing an internal audit with Immigration and NIB. 

“And this is how we have been finding out about these cases, and we’re taking proper action on them. So, the only difference is that we’re taking action, so I don’t think it’s anything alarming, but I think it’s something that Bahamians should be proud of, that we are weeding out all fraudulent activity.”  

Senator Henfield, in a statement yesterday, had called for stronger measures to safeguard the integrity of the Bahamian passport.

“An integrated e-system that screens passport applications against the backdrop of the Registrar General’s Office, the Department of Immigration, the National Insurance Board, the Ministry of Education, and others will go a long way in reducing the possibility of such fraud,” he said. “We encourage the government to prioritise digitising and integrating these and other systems to assist in verifying information purported to be authentic.”