No official request has been made by the United States of America for assistance into the investigations of the visa racket, which allegedly involves a Consular Officer at the U.S embassy in Guyana.
This is according to Head of the Presidential Secretariat (HPS), Dr. Roger Luncheon, during his post cabinet media briefing on Wednesday.
Dr. Luncheon said, “It is not the norm of the Americas of this world to come to the Guyanas of this world and say ‘help we’. It’s not the norm.”
He explained that the issue was not officially brought to Cabinet’s attention.
“The Foreign Minister spent enormous amount of time with us speaking about our engagements bilaterally and with our diplomatic partners and among the matters that have not been brought formally to our attention is support assistance into another visa racket… at this embassy here in Guyana. It hasn’t been brought to our attention nor a request for assistance,” Dr. Luncheon told reporters in response to a question.
In a statement issued by the United States Embassy in Georgetown on July 3, it was noted that, “The Department of State is aware of allegations of improprieties relating to a Consular Officer formerly assigned to Georgetown, Guyana.”
The statement did not provide any details of the allegation or the investigations, but explained that the claims against the officer were being taken seriously and anyone found culpable would be penalised.
“The Department takes all allegations of misconduct by employees seriously. We are reviewing the matter thoroughly. If the allegations are substantiated, we will work with the relevant authorities to hold anyone involved accountable,” the State Department added.
This is the second US Consular Officer to be embroiled in such acts. The first was in March 2000 when then Consular Officer Thomas Carroll was arrested for selling at least 800 visas for entry into the US between US$10,000 and US$15,000 each.
