By Iana Seales
As the investigation into the reported shady dealings at the Customs and Trade Adminis-tration (CTA) continue, the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) has fired three more employees allegedly tied to the Polar beer scandal.
These dismissals come nearly two weeks after GRA axed two employees from its Internal Affairs Division. This duo was reportedly part of separate teams, which inspected the Fidelity Investment Limited shipment of Polar beers, which arrived here late last year.
But as GRA toughens up, sources said that the “shrimp in the deal” were being cut while the key people behind the scam had thus far escaped sanctions.
Sources pointed to a GRA official, who was named by a Fidelity figure as being the individual who collected $70 million to facilitate the shipment leaving the wharf. This person, sources said, had been sent on indefinite leave. According to sources, the police were periodically questioning those sent on leave, including the official, but not applying any significant pressure on those in top circle of customs.
The focus of the investigation is the revenue body, sources said, while Fidelity Investments seemed to have escaped scot-free thus far despite the revelations that detail its involvement.
Stabroek News was reliably informed that the three employees who were recently dismissed were from the CTA and Valued Added Tax (VAT) divisions and were part of separate teams that inspected the Fidelity shipment beginning from October 2007. Prior to these dismissals, GRA sent home two officers from Internal Affairs.
Of the three recently sent home one officer reportedly inspected two shipments while the other two carried out one inspection. Together, they were part of teams of GRA officials who inspected the Fidelity shipments between October and December 2007.
This newspaper was told that four GRA officials would usually carry out an inspection and they were usually drawn from separate divisions: Internal Affairs, CTA, VAT and Enforcement but there were occasions when three officers would make the inspection. However, a CTA official was always required to be part of any team carrying out inspection.
One of the dismissed officers told Stabroek News he was part of a team comprising four persons, which made an inspection back in October last year. He said three persons on that team had been sent home, leaving just the one from Enforcement.
According to him, the official from Enforcement was being protected and allowed to remain on the job while many other persons were sent on indefinite leave. He said the GRA was singling out some persons and protecting others.
“The investigation they are carrying out is a sham because the people with inside knowledge on this thing have not been fired and there are persons who were tasked with inspection, just like me, who are still on the job. How can that be fair?” he asked.
The employee maintained that when he looked into the container he saw soft drinks and not Polar beers and according to him, that was what the others saw too. He said they would have all had to collude and carefully plan everything out to pull off the deception GRA said they did.
Sources said GRA inspections on containers were never 100 per cent because that would be physically impossible given that the inspections were done manually. The team set up to inspect the containers was drawn from various divisions for checks and balances purposes.
Last month, a key Fidelity figure fingered top GRA officials in the scandal revealing how the company had entrusted a customs broker with $142 million to get the shipment from the wharf. The man reportedly came up with a deal with CTA to clear the Polar beers under the category of ‘assorted soft drinks’, which draws less tax than beers. The sum of $32 million was then paid to the revenue body in taxes and another $70 million was paid to a top customs official who allowed the shipment to leave the wharf and who allegedly facilitated documents being falsified for Fidelity.
