Stabroek Business has been reliably informed that the operations of some of the country’s large importers could come under scrutiny by the team set up to probe the recent allegations of fraud involving officials of the Customs and Trade Administra-tion and the local distribution company Fidelity. The source told this newspaper that if the investigation is to move in the direction outlined in President Jagdeo’s recent pronouncements on the matter “we should not be surprised if the investigating team shows an interest in some large importers and their operations.” President Jagdeo had said at a press conference last week that the Customs probe could go far deeper than the Fidelity matter giving rise to speculation that long-standing concerns over revenue evasion that causes the public treasury to lose billions of dollars and enriches Customs functionaries could also become part of the probe.
The source told Stabroek Business that the involvement of businessmen in the Cus-toms probe could begin with some importers being interviewed by the investigating team “in the near future.”
This newspaper has learnt that the investigation which is being undertaken collaboratively by the Ministry of Finance, the Office of the Auditor General and the Police will also be focusing on what the source described as “procedural irregularities” that may have allowed corrupt practices to flourish.
Stabroek Business has also been informed that members of the investigating team headquartered at the Ministry of Finance have begun combing through Customs files and interviewing Guyana Revenue Autho-rity officials in order to seek to determine the nature and extent of the fraud. The source told Stabroek Business that the investigating team will be seeking to secure information on, among other things, “weaknesses in the systems of checks and balances” within the GRA that would have made the Fidelity fraud possible by officials who would have had access to those systems.
News that the investigators are likely to widen their net to include members of the business community is consistent with sections of a statement made by President Jagdeo at a recent press conference that reports of irregularities at the Customs department go beyond the Fidelity investigation. President Jagdeo had also said at his press conference that the investigation was also likely to probe any complicity by Fidelity in the fraud.
At his press conference President Jagdeo had also referred to “Civil Servants” whom he said were worth several hundred times their known income and had said that the probe will include investigations into their assets. Stabroek Business has been notified that among the GRA officers who have been sent on leave in the wake of the fraud revelations are senior and junior functionaries in the VAT and Excise administration unit, Customs Officers and some low-level functionaries in the department. The source declined to provide the identities of the officials who have been sent on leave.
Asked ‘how far up’ the probe was likely to go the source told Stabroek Business that the investigation was likely to affect both persons believed to be directly involved in the Fidelity matter and other matters, failures in systems established to safeguard against fraud and weaknesses in those systems.
Representatives of the business community with whom Stabroek Business spoke all declined to comment on the disclosure that businessmen were likely to be interviewed as part of the probe though one conceded that it was “perhaps inevitable” that any investigation into what President Jagdeo has termed the “shakedown” at Customs was likely to have implications for businessmen “who are affected by the shakedown.”
