Not benefiting Dominicans

It is a fact that for some years now Dominica has been operating a passport selling programme for the raising of money. But who are the main beneficiaries?

The number of persons who have benefited by the sale of Dominica passports are many, from promoters, to agents, to investigators- they all continue to make money.

Recently the PM went on the air and told Dominica business people that they should take advantage of the Economic Citizenship Programme; but how many business persons can take advantage when the application fee is EC$13,000- rather outrageous.

Recently the PM announced on air that a number of major projects has been approved which will be financed by the sale of passports but it will be interesting to see how many of these projects will be completed.

Within the Eastern Caribbean there has been a private investigation firm and still is. The process of operating a citizenship programme calls for integrity shopping and due diligence which can be provided by the lone investigation firm. But although the firm is based in Dominica it was not employed to provide its services.

A government official told the owner/operator of the agency that in order for him to be employed he must be able to provide the services needed like doing a background check on someone from faraway lands but most importantly he will have to be vetted by agencies like the CIA and the FBI. The government official made it clear that it's very unlikely that my firm will be employed.

Over the years a number of companies calling themselves investigation firms have been contracted by the Government to perform background checks on people wanting to become Dominican citizens but a check carried out on these companies show that they were not operated by investigators. In the business of private investigation, networking is very important and the check carried out on these companies revealed that the operators were not members of any investigative association as has been the operator of the lone investigation firm in Dominica and the entire Eastern Caribbean who has held membership in a number of international associations and does have direct access to personnel within most of the intelligence organisations throughout the world with the exception of North Korea and maybe one or two CIS states.

He is in touch with what developments in the field of investigation and intelligence and can handle any investigation related to the passport selling operation. Distance, type of paper and name still play a role in determining whether someone will be contracted in Dominica. This local investigation firm is located 37 miles from the city, his application was on plain paper and he is of the Negro race. All the accepted agencies are located more than two thousand miles from Dominica, their applications are presented on glossy paper and none of the operators are of the same race as the local applicant.

We are still shackled.

This local investigation firm can conduct all the investigation that any of the agencies based in London, New York or Toronto can. Whether it is risk analysis, due diligence, asset tracing, process service, integrity shopping and other services.

Joffre Dorsett Owner/manager Eagle Investigation and Security