The Guyana Revenue Authority has sent home several officers attached to various departments after it unearthed three separate instances where attempts were being made to defraud the state of more than Gy$ 27 million in revenue and taxes.
GRA Commissioner General Khurshid Sattaur made the disclosure during an exclusive interview with this newspaper at his Lamaha Street office. He said that the entity has launched three separate investigations into the instances which saw several breaches of the Standard Operating Procedures.
The first incident, he disclosed, was in Berbice where several officers are being investigated for the disappearance of cigarettes where Gy$ 20 million in taxes are involved.
The investigation resulted in visits being made to Suriname to garner the assistance of the authorities there. The G-Smart cigarettes were imported from Suriname. “… a massive amount of these cigarettes came into the country in a vehicle… we know who the officers are from our end that are involved in this incident and we have sent them off… we know who the importer is as well and we will make a public disclosure about his identity soon,” Sattaur explained.
He disclosed that GRA had benefited from the assistance of the driver who had transported the item and several connected persons. Some four middle management GRA employees have been sent home to facilitate the smooth flow of investigations into the incident. They would be debarred from entering any of the entity’s offices and will not be allowed to engage in any customs operations. He did not name them.
The agency has also been working closely with the Demerara Tobacco Company here to get more details that could create a breakthrough with the investigations. “These are the people who are giving Guyana a bad name for these kinds of nefarious activities they engage in which are robbing the state of revenue… they are selfish individuals…. they can afford to pay their taxes, because they recover them from the sale of the items after,” the commissioner general remarked.
Sattaur also disclosed that the system has discovered another corrupt and fraudulent activity which has seen vehicles entering Guyana through Suriname which bear false number plates. This scam could only occur with help from officials at the country’s Licence Revenue Office and help from customs officers.
“These vehicles purportedly are coming across from Suriname as if they left here but would have been vehicles that originate from Suriname,” he said. Several officers have also been sent home as investigations are continuing into this matter.
The third incident where corruption and fraud were detected occurred after officials discovered that a businessman was attempting to evade paying in excess of Gy$7 million in taxes through false declarations.
Sattaur said that even though the amount involved in this instance could be considered minimal, it is still a cause of concern.
“Nevertheless, it was an attempt to evade through very devious means by describing the items as television sets and other house hold items,” he explained. Several officers have also been sent home in connection with this incident.
Sattaur maintained throughout the interview that these instances of corruption would not have been detected had it not been for the collaboration that exists between law enforcement and customs officials here and those in Suriname. He also highlighted the significant work of the Internal Audit Department, while also acknowledging the gains made since the implementation of the public hotline.
The commissioner general was adamant that the organisation is now more transparent than ever before and with the investments made in reforms, developing modern standard operational procedures, and other fraud detection systems, the entity is more equipped to both unearth and respond effectively to instances of corruption. “Once you have the human element in an organisation there is a temptation because we collect revenues.
There will always be corruption in this organisation, but it is the extent to which we will deal with such corruption and prevent it from becoming widespread and a major problem… that is where our success lies,” he argued.
