On the heels of immigration officers signing a “no confidence” petition against acting Chief Immigration Officer (AgCIO) Charmaine Gandhi-Andrews, a cheque totalling $31,080 has surfaced. That hefty payment was made to a popular Hotel at Crown Point Tobago from the Immigration Department.
Senior immigration officers are calling on Gandhi-Andrews to clear the air on the purpose of the three alleged trips and stay at the Coco Reef Resort and Spa between June 2017 to September 2017.
The cheque No. P00515144, dated September 20, 2017, represents the amount paid for the three combined invoices. Thirteen people benefited from the trips.
The details of the Government issued-cheque stub included: “Invoice No. 2016205 HD22 02/007/01 vhf no. 4101-4103 IMMIGRATION.”
“Officers were taken to Coco Reef on three occasions, it seems…but up to now no one knows what they went for,” the senior immigration officer said.
T&T Guardian also received a record of Gandhi-Andrews’ travels out of the country from Piarco International Airport from August 2, 2007, to September 10, 2017, which numbered 122. However, it was unsure if all the trips were official or a mixture of both official and personal business.
Gandhi-Andrews read all questions sent to her via WhatsApp at 3.10 pm yesterday. However, up to late yesterday, she still did not respond to any of the questions sent to her over the weekend including the petition against her, the circumstances surrounding the cheque to Coco Reef Hotel and her departures from Trinidad.
“How can the acting CIO efficiently and effectively run the Immigration Division if she is always out of the country?” officers asked.
“Foreigners seeking asylum here in T&T are instead being locked up because maybe the acting CIO not doing what is supposed to be done, carrying out her duties accordingly.
Passports taking over three months to be issued. No new ideas are being brought to the table to better enhance the Immigration system and court rulings are flippantly disregarded,” a senior immigration officer said.
“We cannot even get uniforms and some of us have to resort to legal action to get our respective allowances that we are entitled to,” the officer added.
The vote of no-confidence document against the acting CIO bears 300 signatures and has been sent to the Public Service Commission (PSC) for their perusal and investigation.
A letter dated August 7, 2017, was also penned and sent to Majeed Ali, Auditor General. Its subject: “No confidence in acting Chief Immigration Officer, Charmaine Gandhi-Andrews.”