Official sent on leave:

DEPUTY Chief Immigration Officer Paulette Morrison has been sent on leave to facilitate the investigation into the disappearance of 100 new (blank) passports from the Central Immigration and Passport Office earlier this month.

Morrison could be transferred to another division when she resumes duty some time this week, a source at Eve Leary said. Senior Superintendent, George Vyphuis, former commander of “G” Division, Essequibo is currently heading the immigration department.

Prior to the discovery that 100 passports had disappeared, the department had been in the news recently when it was revealed that Trinidadian David “Buffy” Millard had been issued a Guyana passport some time back. This was uncovered recently when he and another Trinidadian, Joseph Aboud, and four Guyanese were found hiding out at a house in Nandy Park, Guyana which members of the joint services had raided while searching for the missing Defence Force AK-47 rifles.

Contacted on the status of the investigation into the missing passports, Stabroek News was told by a senior police officer that statements were taken from immigration officers and fingerprints were lifted from the scene. The officer said investigators have made some headway, but would not say in what areas.

On May 1, police reported the theft of the passports. The documents were discovered missing from the Deputy Chief Immigration Officer’s office the same day. Police officials had said that the passports were new and had not yet been issued to anyone. The serial numbers of the passports were 1142301 to 1142400. Investigators had visited the scene upon the discovery that the passports were missing and had found that a padlock had been sawn off which facilitated entry into the room where the passports were secured. Keys might have also been used to facilitate the theft, police said.

The police had advised financial and other institutions not to accept passports bearing the serial numbers of those reported stolen.

Additionally, it was felt that the theft of the passports was likely an inside job. Stabroek News was told by police that whoever stole the passports may want to insert names and photographs and sell them to persons, who do not want to go through the normal procedure for obtaining the document.

The acquisition of a Guyana passport has long been a tedious exercise and despite many promises the situation at the Immigration Office has not improved. On a daily basis hundreds of people could be seen flocking the immigration office to either uplift a new passport or renew an old one.

Sources said it might take years to nab the persons who may buy the stolen passports, but pointed out that in another five years they would have to renew them and immigration officers would always be on the lookout for passports with those serial numbers.

With regard to Morrison, Stabroek News understands that the stolen passports might have already contained her signatures, which leaves persons only to insert their photographs and names. According to sources there have been several other discrepancies at the immigration offices, some of which never came to light. Currently the immigration office is being manned by police ranks. The Disciplined Services Commission report had advised government to free policemen/women from those duties and give them to civilians. No action has been taken on that so far.

Meanwhile, Millard who fled to Guyana from Trinidad and Tobago in 2003 was able to acquire a Guyanese passport, using the name Edmund De Freitas. It is not clear how Millard managed this, since it requires, among other things, a Guyana birth certificate, to get a passport. When Stabroek News contacted the General Registrar’s Office yesterday, an officer said that she was not aware that Millard obtained a birth certificate.

The official said as far as she knew the police only discovered Millard having in his possession a Guyanese passport. Stabroek News was told that it was possible for Millard to have obtained a passport without submitting the necessary documents. According to a source the same way the 100 new passports went missing, one could have been leaked to Millard and the necessary insertion of his name and photograph done. The source said too that someone at the immigration office could have also conspired to give him a passport without asking for his birth certificate. Millard was extradited to Trinidad earlier this month.

On August 21, 2004 Millard and Abu Bakr, also known as Lennox Phillip, leader of the Jamaat al Muslimeen in Trinidad were arrested and charged jointly with conspiring to murder Rasheed and Zaki Aubaidah, Bakr’s son-in-law. Millard was charged in absentia after he fled to Guyana the year before.

Trinidad had sought Guyana’s assistance in capturing Millard, but except for information about him being on an island in the Essequibo River nothing else had been heard about him.

Millard had told local investigators that he was the bodyguard of a well-known businessman.