DISPARITIES IN CIU’S REPORTS

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A number of discrepancies have been found between a six-monthly report of the Citizenship by Investment Unit (CIU) published online and another report read in Parliament – discrepancies for which the CIU said it does not presently have an explanation.
The variances occur where the number of passports issued by nationality in one report for the period of inception to June 2015 is routinely higher that the total number of applications received by nationality for the period of inception to December 2015 in another report.
At a press conference on Friday, the CIU’s Financial Controller, Casford King said the CIU would “go back to validate” the reports “as there might have been variations of the report as it was generated previously”.
He argued that the CIU was committed to “make sure that the right information was put out there” but said, “I cannot say with certainty that it is correct.”
King promised to get back to OBSERVER media at a later date.
The first document in question is a report dated June 17, 2015 compiled by the CIU which included a summary of passports issued from citizenships granted under the Citizenship by Investment Programme (CIP) from its inception in 2013 to June 2015.
This report was signed by the then acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Charmaine Donovan and was compiled at the request of the Prime Minister to be presented in Parliament during questions to ministers.
The second document was published after the first. It is the Six-Monthly Report of the CIU from inception in 2013 to December of 2015 and was dated March 3, 2016 and signed by the acting CEO at the time, Thomas Anthony.
The discrepancies arise between a table in the 2015 parliament report titled ‘passports issued by nationality’ and a table in the online six-monthly report titled ‘number of citizenship applications received under the programme by country of birth’.
In one instance, the report for parliament states that 33 passports were issued to Iranian nationals between inception and June 2015. However, the six-monthly report states that only 27 applications for citizenship were received from Iranians from inception to December of the same year.
In another instance, the report for parliament states that 6 passports were issued to Iraqi nationals between inception and June 2015. However, the six-monthly report states that only 4 applications for citizenship were received from Iraq from inception to December of the same year.
The report from parliament also notes that 21 passports were issued to Egyptian nationals between inception and June 2015 but according to the six-monthly report only 8 applications for citizenship were received from Egypt from inception to December of 2015.
While the report for parliament states that 58 passports were issued to Lebanese nationals from inception up to June of 2015, the six-monthly report states that only 35 applications for citizenship were received for Lebanese nationals from inception to December of 2015.
Similar discrepancies can be observed between the two lists for countries such as Indonesia, Canada, Palestine, Nigeria and the United Kingdom. In many instances, the number of passports issued up to June of 2015 is higher than the number of applications received up to December of the same year.
In one instance, the report from Parliament notes that 2 passports were issued to nationals of Istanbul while Istanbul does not appear as a category in the six-monthly report. However, Turkey – where Istanbul is located – is listed as a category in the six-monthly report with 3 applications for citizenship recorded from inception to December of 2015.
In another instance, nationals of Dubai are listed in the report for parliament as being issued 3 passports up to June of 2015 while the six-monthly report does not list Dubai as a category but instead lists the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – the country where the city of Dubai is located.
The second document is available online at cip.gov.ag. OBSERVER media sourced the first document from Parliament.

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