Dear Editor,
The news reports coming out of Guyana with regard to the smuggling/tax evasion/bribery and overall crimes against the people of Guyana in the Polar beer scam do not surprise most observers.
The fact that the events have occurred in the manner in which they have, is really no shock to anyone living in Guyana. Perhaps what is shocking is the amount the public treasury, and hence the hardworking Guyanese are being denied by these thieves.
Anyone with passing familiarity of the GRA knows that there are cliques of corrupt rings of customs officers operating out of certain units who collaborate with businessmen to evade taxes and ultimately rob the ordinary man of improvements in their livelihood through this redirecting of public funds.
The revenue boss may have even alluded to this in public statements made some time ago.
What many may not know is that some of the officers currently embroiled in this thievery/bribery, share close relations with the highest levels in the revenue agency. Some have been promoted ahead of their better qualified colleagues, and have even been catapulted to very senior positions where they control critical processes such as risk profiles.
One is only left to wonder how such corrupt officials could have remained undercover, when some of them meet daily with the revenue boss.
From the press reports, Fidelity and/or its agents has admitted to bribery and conspiring to evade taxes. It appears as if at some time assorted soft drinks were legally imported by Fidelity. The issue of the 780,000 odd cases of Polar beer is truly intriguing and has implications wider than the duties that they have evaded or the band of high rolling corrupt customs officers. What about the impact that these uncustomed goods are having on the business of our local brewer Banks DIH and Ansa McAL which imports beer from Trinidad and Tobago?
The President has said that the investigations may probe peoples’ assets. For starters most law-abiding Guyan-ese would like Fidelity to be held criminally responsible for all the laws they have broken. No amnesty should be given. I agree with the President, no one should be protected artificially. Let the chips fall where they may. The major worrisome thing about all this is that for so long, so many scams have come and passed and well…….. the chips haven’t fallen. One hopes that in this probe a few entry level customs officers are not the only casualties. This is a country hovering somewhere below 2.5 on Transparency International’s corruption index. It is important that none of those involved be treated with kid gloves.
The customs ring should be broken, those thieves dismissed (some weren’t even qualified to be holding some senior positions anyway) and all of their illegally gained assets (which in some cases are the proceeds of over 20 years of corrupt practices) or those they have divested in the custody of family members seized, after these guys have been afforded due process, put before the courts and found guilty.
The GRA has been on TV a lot sharing the virtue of the new systems for processing goods and highlighting audit trails, let’s hope these systems are now put to good use.
The relationship between the revenue heads and some of these officers also needs to be probed. Perhaps lapses in judgment or worse may be revealed. The current probe also needs to examine the role of internal affairs investigators as they discharge their duties. The indications are that some of them have been recruited into the many rings.
Let’s hope that this is not another scam to be heaped with the other well documented scams. The Guyanese people deserve better.
Yours faithfully,
G Williams
