Dear Editor,
I refer to the article captioned ‘Businessman suffers as a result of GRA corruption – purchased unregistered vehicle,’ which was published in KN dated Thursday, December 17, 2009.
The publication of this article appears to be a calculated approach by the newspaper to deliberately tarnish the image of the Guyana Revenue Authority even as we take actions to augment our systems towards the provision of better services complemented with higher levels of transparency.
The KN’s awareness of the steps taken to automate our systems at the Licence Revenue Office, is evidenced by the numerous publications made in that newspaper and other printed media, through which we sought to inform the general public of the establishment of a system designed to expose those unscrupulous persons who have been engaged in fraudulent practices directed towards defrauding the revenue payable on motor vehicles, as well as other related criminal activities, while successfully eluding our enforcement efforts.
I wish to advise that the regularization of the status of these vehicles goes without question and those persons who in the past used forged and other bogus motor vehicle documents to take advantage of cracks in the previous manually operated system as they hid from the regulatory authorities, will be prosecuted when found.
It is clear that KN’s singular approach to this issue has resulted in the publication of this biased and unqualified article, which lacks the credibility of proper professional investigative journalism. From a cursory examination of the central points of the article, there are several questions which remain unanswered and which will determine if the proper procedures for having the vehicle transferred to Mr Bhola Nauth were followed, and confirm whether or not there was the involvement of the Licence Revenue Office.
In this regard, the GRA states categorically that we refute this position which seeks to place an unjustified degrading outlook on our organization and find also that the article which deliberately sets out to cause irreparable damage to the public image of the GRA, to be very irresponsible and inflammatory.
Yours faithfully,
Khurshid Sattaur
Commissioner-General
