The Governing Board of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) has been asked to meet on the findings of the report on the ‘polar beer scam’ to decide on possible “administrative sanctions” against customs workers.
President Bharrat Jagdeo told a news conference on Thursday that while awaiting advice on criminal charges from the Director of Public Prosecutions, he asked that the Board meet on the report, which was produced after an investigation by a task force led by Auditor General Deodat Sharma. “As I said, no one would be spared,” the President said, explaining that beyond those who could face criminal charges, “There are others who, I gather, the board will look at them administratively….”
The report on the alleged collusion by customs officers with Fidelity Investments Inc./ Kong Inc. to defraud the GRA recommended charges against 15 customs employees from various departments were complicit in the fraud.
The report also called for a number of senior officials and other employees at the GRA to be re-instated to their positions since they were unaware of what was unfolding within the administration at the time. The report said there was no concrete evidence to implicate Rohan Beekhoo, Deputy Commissioner of the Value Added Tax and Excise Department of GRA; Ramnarine Makardajh, Director of the Enforcement Section, CTA; Nityanand Narootandeo, Supervisor of the Entry Processing Unit; Royan Sattaur, Clerk 11 attached to the Import Verification Unit of VAT and John Tularam, Supervisor attached to VAT office, GRA. It added that a warning letter should be issued to Beekhoo to be more vigilant in the execution of his duties in “view of the fact that the (risk) profiling system of imports appeared to have been breached during his tenure as Chairman”.
However, President Jagdeo said prescribing sanctions and reinstatement was outside the “remit” of the task force “You have an independent board there that will examine the breaches that go beyond criminality,” he added, “It could be a whole lot of things. Loss of confidence in the officer… a whole lot of other things could attract administrative sanctions.”
The findings of the task force exposed how many departments of the CTA were compromised and how the Total Revenue Integrated Processing System (TRIPS) software suite running the revenue system had been undermined.
The report said TRIPS was manipulated so that certain categories of goods and importers were not correctly flagged for examination, and when flagged for examination by the Valuation Unit they were not examined by the unit. It also criticised the lack of a functioning security camera at CTA, which is “essential because of the fact that the non-operation of the cameras made it impossible to determine who paid customs duties and taxes on behalf of Fidelity.”
