When “kool out” has become the catch phrase for passport money being doled out for vote buying schemes by the Dominica Labor Party one would have had to be hiding under a rock or like the flamboyant ostriches in Dominica pretend like there is no fraud and mismanagement linked to the sale of Dominican passports.The obvious corruption and disappearance of millions of dollars over the last 12 months is now dubbed “ The One Billion Dollar Hole.” In colloquial fashion the people are asking “Way de Money Gone.”
Quite frankly it does not matter whose side you support in the game of Dominican politics but as a Dominican you must now be concerned about the bombshell revelations made by leader of the opposition Lennox Linton concerning tens of millions of dollars that appear to have simply vanished from the country’s citizenship by investment program.
Sometimes it takes just a small thing to trip up a big elephant. That small thing has to do with the pressure by the opposition that forced the government to begin revealing the names of Dominican citizens as required by law in the Official Gazette. For years it resisted until finally in 2009 the names of the newly minted Dominican citizens began appearing in the Gazette, sometimes sporadically.
Fast forward to 2019 and the March 14th issue of the official Dominica Gazette that triumphantly proclaimed that 3961 persons had acquired Dominican passports during a five month period ,August 1st to December 31st 2018. The news and names of the new economic citizens were instantly flashed across social media. Yet another reminder that passports have become our sole export.
With the volume of passports sold it is reasonable to ask why Dominica does not have a modern day international airport and why Ross had to exit. Why aren't Dominicans enjoying all the great things that could come from securing billions in passports sales -like the people of St Kitts for example.
Even if the apologists like Tony Astaphan , Parry Bellot or Clarence Christian would like to change fundamental mathematics, 3961 passports by US $100 000 equals US $396.1 million the equivalent of EC $ 1.1 billion. Sweet oh so sweet! In just five months. Now imagine if that rate was maintained for the next seven months then the Dominican public would receive an unprecedented EC $3.1 billion.
Kudos to the opposition leader who received the budget estimate just 5 days before the budget debate yet he immediately spotted the gaping hole in the financial report. The Prime Minister and Minister of Finance declared passport revenues of E$227 million or US $ 91.3 million for the entire twelve months It is important to note that this EC$227million was less than last year’s revenue and about half of what was projected. Rightly so the reported figures triggered an alarm among the Dominican public. How on earth is this possible and why such a great disparity between the revenues reported and that which was expected from the sales volume as published in the official gazette.
In any other country, there would have been an immediate investigation for massive fraud and corruption and the prime minister would have had to resign. But we have already seen the low crawling creatures deliberately distorting the facts and are once again preparing to bury yet another outrageous scandal. So let’s look closely at the numbers presented by Skerrit.
The requirement for citizenship and Dominican passport under the CBI program is clearly stated. “To qualify for Commonwealth of Dominica economic citizenship under this option, the following non-refundable monetary contributions must be made to the Government fund: Single applicant - USD $100,000 (EC $270 000); Main applicant and spouse - USD $175,000 (EC $472 500); Main applicant, spouse, and up to 2 children under 18 years of age - USD $200,000 (EC $540 000); Additional dependents - USD $25,000 each.”
In other words, before a passport is issued in your name you must provide the cash upfront either as an individual, or as a family. Now let’s examine the data that would identify with the figures presented by the minister of finance math:
Assuming there were only individual applicants then the EC $227 million would mean a grand total of EIGHT HUNDRED AND FORTY (840) passports would have been issued over twelve months Simple math: (Total Revenue/Passport Fee = Number of Passports or EC226m/EC270 000 = 840).
If we are to assume that all contributions came from families of four, then for every US $200, 000 that would be four persons (4 x US$50,000). With EC $226 Million it would mean that there were 420 families of four (420x4) which would make up a total of 1680 people, still far short of the 3961 passports as reported over five months.
Should we stretch the ridiculous math of Skerrit even further and assume that not one single passport was sold after December he still needs to account for close to half a billion dollar shortfall just during those five months.
Instead of sending his watch dogs out there to create distraction Skerrit needs to account for the spacious gap between the large numbers of passports definitely issued under the CBI program and the unbelievable small amount of revenues reported to the Treasury. The Dominican public should accept no less. This after all is our money.
So Mr. Skerrit
Where has the money gone?
Will you come clean with the Dominican public?
Was it a mistake with your budget?
We searched the Gazette for errors and found no repeated names. The names as shown in the Gazette are non-Dominican. If your budget figures are correct, then where are the missing tens of millions?
Did you offer a discount on the passports selling at US $10,000 instead of US $100 000 and forgot to inform the public?
Are you Skerrit stashing the millions away to surprise the public with an election gift of a paid in full international airport? We need answers and we need these now.
Prior to 2009 ,when passport sales were not documented in the gazette, passports were being sold willy nilly all over the world and Dominicans had no idea how many passports were being sold. Just imagine the kind of fraud that took place.
Note also that it was only after the 60 minutes expose that we the people of Dominica started getting some feedback on our passport money. It was only after the 60 minutes expose that the government went into a hotel building frenzy- they desperately wanted to show something tangible as an account for the billions of dollars made in the passport trade.
We were led to believe that our revenue stream came from VAT only. In 2014 Ian Douglas stated “ VAT is the Backbone of the economy- The VAT is the mechanism that generates revenue to the government’s coffer’s so that we can meet our commitments.” Either Ian Douglas had no idea (still does not) what was happening to the billions of dollars made in passport sales.
Now that the veils have been broken the, fraud and the high crimes are even more glaring. Like the people of Puerto Rico the people of Dominica should be outraged and show their contempt for the continuous corruption and mismanagement of our country’s resources. It is time for this criminal to "get out ,get out get out – we doh want them no more “
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