The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) has set up a high level panel to investigate the findings contained in the Auditor General-led report into the polar beer scam involving company employees and Fidelity Investments.
Well-placed sources confirmed yesterday that the panel was constituted to “dig deeper into the report’s findings”, but also to give employees an opportunity to explain certain findings made by the task force which investigated the fraud.
The GRA panel which includes senior customs officials and an attorney is expected to determine whether the findings as set out in the report are accurate.
Fifteen employees, some in the company of their attorneys, appeared before the panel yesterday and testified. Reports are that many slammed the Auditor General-led report as being highly prejudicial and argued that they were not given a fair hearing.
The employees were reportedly grilled individually as allegations were directly put to them; many denied any involvement.
Further, reports state that the GRA panel is to write the employees informing them of the final position of the revenue body as it relates to their re-instatement or dismissal. The employees had been interdicted from duty a year ago to facilitate the task force investigations.
The task force report, which was released last month and was forwarded to the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions for advice, concluded that fake documents were submitted to customs by both the broker and Fidelity Investments Inc and charges were recommended against a top Fidelity official, a broker and 14 Customs employees from various departments who were said to be complicit in the fraud. Some persons had been dismissed even before the completion of the report.
It also concluded that it was polar beer that had been brought into the country and not soft drinks as had been claimed by some Customs employees. Furthermore, while a price of US$2.15 per case had been listed by Fidelity, an investigative team that travelled to Venezuela found that Fidelity had been sold the beer at US$4.40 per case.
The report submitted to President Bharrat Jagdeo also made a number of recommendations to plug loopholes in the Guyana Revenue Authority and lamented that key cameras had not been functioning at a time when it would have been useful for the investigation. It also found that the software suite for the GRA had been manipulated. The payment of millions in duties in cash and the disappearance of key documents have also raised question marks. The polar beer fraud grabbed national attention in April last year, resulting in President Jagdeo initiating a task force to conduct an investigation.
