Time to end Dominica’s economic citizenship program

Roseau, Dominica (TDN) — There is so much wrong about Dominica’s economic citizenship program that it is hard to know where to begin. But , at least I can try. For starters, with the exception of St Kitts and Nevis, and to some extent Austria, no other country in the world has such a program, where you can simply ‘buy’ a passport from any number of agents.

The Dominican passport may be in danger of becoming irrelevant.

When the program was started many years ago by Dame Eugenia Charles, it was genuinely intended to bring reputable business people to Dominica who would contribute of their time, energy and resources to the country’s development.

Today, several years later, the program has degenerated into the wanton sale of Dominican passports to mainly persons with little or no interest in residing in Dominica. In fact, it is safe to say that the overwhelming majority of persons who can afford to pay the minimum of $75 000 USD for a Dominican passport do so because they are attempting to exploit the benefits that holders of Dominican passports enjoy.

This translates to ease of travel to scores of countries, visa free travel to the United Kingdom, and relatively easy access to US and Canada visas, which begs the obvious question who is the real beneficiaries. Of the alleged thousands of passports sold to date, less than 10 persons actually reside in Dominica.

This is a program that is clearly ill conceived, and which can only continue to bring shame and embarrassment to the vast majority of honest, genuine, and dignified Dominicans. More importantly, in a security conscious world it open the doors for exploitation by potential terrorists and others of less than noble intent who may wish to use the passport to gain access to certain countries.

Consider the case where the sale of passports are done, not through official government channels, but rather through agents who are not limited in what they are allowed to charge their clients. The only stipulation is that $75 000 should go to the Treasury. However, since no one knows for sure just how many passports are sold, there is no way to keep tabs.

The scale of abuse is mindboggling. In the most extreme cases of abuse that we know of, the DLP government sold one passport (diplomatic) to a certain Susan Oldie for a staggering $400 000, money which was then used to finance their 2005 election campaign.

Grace Tonge a Taiwanese national over a period of several years sold scores of passports, raising millions in the process, and claiming ostensibly to build a new Layou River Hotel. Years later, all that remains are a few crumbling walls, long overtaken by the forest.

The government has published an official list of ten agents, but other than the names of well known Dominican lawyers, this is simply a list of company names. The full list is Alick Lawrence offices in Dominica, Lebanon, UAE , and Sarjah; lawyers Duncan Stowe, David Bruney, Singolla Blomquist-Williams, and defrietas, defreitas and Johnson; Second Citizenship Ltd (operating out of Alick Lawrence offices), Safe Haven Offshore, and Design Management Ltd, CCP Inc and Whitco Inc (these are simply PO Box numbers).

This is another thing I find wrong and very troubling. Sale of Dominican passports should never be outsourced, but rather must be kept under the close and watchful eye of the government.

Further, no or very little accounting is done. No one is held responsible. Yet money continues to be made, and passports continue to go to people who could care less about our country. Dominica’s population is just shy of 70 000, yet some estimates put the total number of passports issued including those to natural born Dominicans at well over that figure.

The last time official numbers were released in 2005, we were told that 3, 500 passports had been sold under the program since it started in 1991. Five years later we conservatively estimate this number to be around 8 000. Assuming 8 000 passports were sold at an average of $100 000 USD that would be equivalent to $800 million USD or a whooping EC $ 2.1 billion.

To put this in perspective, this level of revenue could completely finance more than five years of government budgets. Where have this money gone? I looked in the government revenue estimates but could not find it. Think of it this way. Let’s assume that my estimate of over 4 000 passports is way off and that since 2005 only an additional 750 passports were sold. This is a very conservative estimate given that in Grenada where better records were kept before suspension of the program the country was selling about 250 on average per year.

The sale of just 850 passports would yield over EC $172 million over five years, or an average of EC $34.4 million per year. In the 2009 estimates the total income within which this figure could be categorized was equal to EC $27.3 million. In other words much of the expected $34 million would not have found its way to our Treasury.

The potential for fraud and the compromising of the country’s security is on such a massive scale that it demands a complete halt to the program, and now. Not only are we flirting with our national security but we are allowing individuals to profit unashamedly from such a program. This is particularly telling when you consider that there are no limits to what individuals can charge.

Drastic action is called for. I call on the Director of Audit to conduct a complete forensic audit of the scheme. Failing that, I would urge civil disobedience. The Police Officers who are charged with signing the passport documents should simply refuse to do so. Or at the very least, they should be prepared to reveal to the Dominican public the extent of this massive deception by disclosing the exact numbers of passports issued to non nationals. This should not be a state secret. Why the secrecy, and why the failure to inform the Dominican public?

Further, Prime Minister Skerrit should tell the Dominican people exactly how many passports have been sold since he assumed office and as Finance Minister the exact amount of money that has gone to the Dominican Treasury. The citizens of Dominica can demand no less and should have a necessary expectation that this level of accountability is given by the political leadership.

Failure to act can only continue to result in the compromising of our national security and making a mockery of good governance. At the very least stop the pretense and remove the tag ‘economic citizenship program’ from what is plainly and simply a scheme that continues to line the pockets of a few while the State receives very little in return.

Dishonest people and potential terrorists have an eye for these things and rush in to benefit. Recently, several internet sites have sprung up purporting to sell our passports, which prompted the government authorities to warn against those sites.

My fear is that if this program is not stopped immediately, our passports could become useless. Visas could be denied, and the relative ease with which we travel to countries such as the US, Canada, and those of Europe could become a thing of the past.