Dominica’s Attorney General, Hon. Levi Peter is satisfied with the integrity of the Economic Citizenship Programme.
During his address to Parliament last week Hon. Peter referred to the process involved in obtaining citizenship through this programme.
“The economic citizenship programme provides for a person seeking economic citizenship to apply. That application has to be set out in writing and there are numerous documents that have to be provided in support of that application. Included amongst those documents is what we colloquially call police records which have to be provided by the country of residence. We also generally require such a record from the country of origin. It is also a requirement that fingerprints are provided of the individual. It is also the practice that we ourselves take fingerprints of the individual. The individual, in applying have to provide original documents, exceptionally and I am not aware of any particular circumstance but exceptionally a copy may be accepted but such a copy would have to be a properly duly notarized copy of a document. Documents which originally were in a foreign language have to be translated and provided, again properly authenticated.”
Additionally, the AG further stated that there is now the requirement for a due diligence report. Currently there are two due diligence agencies recognized by the Government to provide those reports.
The Attorney General stated that he has had the opportunity to meet one on one with most of the applicants of the Economic Citizenship Programme during his tenure.
“What is clear is that a significant number of these applicants are professional people or they are people of means and certainly character and they are making significant contributions to our country. The challenge if there is one is how we can better harness the expertise and the resources that these people have for the continued benefit and development of this country.”
The Economic Citizenship Programme was introduced in 1991 by the late Dame Eugenia Charles under the auspices of the Dominica Freedom Party.