—sources say
The full report on the bribery investigations into the irregularities at the Customs and Trade Administration (CTA) involving Fidelity Invest-ments is yet to be released, although there are indications that the final review has been completed.
Auditor General (ag) Deodat Sharma, who heads the task force that President Bharrat Jagdeo set up in April to investigate corrupt practices within the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), had previously indicated that the report would be ready for release in October, but has been tight-lipped about it since divulging this information to Stabroek News three months ago.
Sources close to the investigations said the report was ready and that it was being delayed for no apparent reason, but there were some reported discussions ongoing about what actions if any, to take against the GRA employees embroiled in the Polar beer scandal. Recom-mendations have reportedly been made for criminal charges to be instituted against a few of the employees.
An employee who was sent on leave told Stabroek News that the agony of waiting had taken a toll, and that the authorities needed to “go ahead and say who is guilty and who they sent home wrongfully even if it means I might be charged.”
According to the employee, calls to the office of the Auditor General had gone unanswered and any effort to find out what was happening from the police had also proven futile. The employee opined that people would eventually move on from the scandal and it would be as if it never happened.
When Sharma spoke with this newspaper, he was firm that the findings in the report would be made public, noting that the President would be the first to have the report in his hand. The President has reportedly not received the report, according to a government official who told this newspaper that the findings would likely be known soon after it reached the President.
Sharma had stated that the task force was satisfied with the level of work that had gone into the forensic audit at GRA noting that they had even gone as far as Venezuela to fact-check certain information provided by Fidelity. Since Venezuela was the place from where Fidelity imported the beer − this has been disputed by Fidelity since the scandal broke − the task force, he said, had gone over mainly to clarify what exactly had been imported into the country whether it was a shipment of soft drinks or Polar beer.
“The report puts this issue at rest and until it is released the public will know, but make no mistake about it, we have completed an in-depth look into customs as far as Fidelity goes but there other areas we are now getting started in,” Sharma had said.
According to him this report will only cover one aspect of the probe that the President had initiated − the Fidelity scandal. He disclosed that they had also been tasked with assessing the bank records of employees and in addition, checking the ties employees had with other companies that cleared goods at the wharfs. Both investigations will feature in follow-up reports.
Back in April, Fidelity reportedly proposed a deal with the revenue body that led to the probe being initiated: they would reveal how 73,000 Polar beers had been cleared from the wharf without duties being paid, but only in exchange for the charges instituted against the company to be dropped.
Fidelity then broke the story fingering the GRA officials by spilling how they entrusted a customs broker with $142M to get the shipment from the wharf. The man reportedly came up with a deal with customs to clear the Polar beers under the category of ‘assorted soft drinks.’
The sum of $32M was then paid to the revenue body in taxes and another $70M was paid to a senior customs official who allowed the shipment to leave the wharf and who is also alleged to have facilitated documents being falsified for Fidelity.
But within days of the deal being struck, someone reported to a GRA official that the beers had left the wharf without taxes being paid, resulting in the GRA moving to seal the Fidelity bond at Broad Street.
