15 foreign nationals convicted in GB magistrate’s court

FREEPORT, BAHAMAS – Fifteen foreign nationals were convicted in a Grand Bahama magistrate’s court on Tuesday, March 5.

The foreign nationals comprised of 12 Haitians, two Chinese and one Colombian.

The foreign nationals were all arraigned in magistrate’s court number three before magistrate Rengin Johnson and were convicted of the following charges respectively.

Delise Gedilis, Anne Edith Taris, Rose Widney Fils-Aime, Venant Nixon, Brave Odric, Wislyn Alexis, Guenther Elovidor, Vilnert Lauradin were all convicted of Illegal Entry & Illegal Embarkation and were fined $300.00 each on both counts or in default of payment to serve six months at Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

Kerlande Cerizier was convicted of Illegal Entry and fined $300.00 or in default of payment to serve six months at Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

Exelane Saint Victor and Kerby Victor were convicted of Illegal Embarkation and fined $300.00 each or in default of payment serve six months at Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

Rodelyn Lamour was convicted of overstaying and fined $3000 or in default of payment to serve nine months at Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

Limei Zhang, Jie Zhao and Nancy Melissa Rengifo Barreiro were convicted of Overstaying & Illegal Embarkation and were both fined $3000.00 and $300.00 respectively on each count or in default of payment to serve nine months at Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

Fines were not paid by Guenther Elovidor, Rodelyn Lamour, Limei Zhang and Jie Zhao and they were subsequently turned over to the Royal Bahamas Police Force for due process.

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In February 2015, the Registrar General Department entered into a contractual agreement with VRC, formerly known as Sunshine Shredder, to digitize its company files as part of a long-overdue transition from paper-based records to a modern, paperless system. The initial cost of the contract was a staggering $89,000 for the first month, followed by an ongoing monthly fee of $85,000. Notably, the agreement lacked a clearly defined project timeline or end date, raising immediate concerns about fiscal oversight and accountability. Tragically, while scanning commenced, the project quickly revealed an alarming absence of quality control and verification protocols. The digitization process, meant to enhance access, accuracy, and operational efficiency, was executed with such poor foresight that the resulting digital records are effectively unusable by the Company Section. The core issue lies in the contract specifications. VRC was commissioned to scan and input data into only three (3) fields, despite the operational requirement being six (6) fields for full functionality within the Department’s systems. This fundamental oversight rendered the digitized records incomplete and incompatible with current needs. Attempts to rectify this monumental error have proven financially unviable. Discussions to incorporate the additional fields revealed that doing so would triple the cost an egregious escalation with no guarantee of improved results. To make matters worse, in 2024, when the Registrar General’s office relocated to a new building, the internal scanning unit comprising trained staff who could have potentially salvaged or improved the process was dismantled. These personnel were reassigned to other departments, effectively dissolving any in-house capacity for quality control or intervention. This sequence of decisions paints a troubling picture of systemic mismanagement, questionable contractual negotiations, and a lack of strategic vision. The public deserves transparency, and those responsible for this financial and operational fiasco must be held to account. A project intended to usher in digital transformation has instead become a cautionary tale of waste and ineptitude at the expense of taxpayers and national record integrity.

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