The Guyana Revenue Authority yesterday said that two of its officers are being probed for forging the signatures of senior officers.
In a statement, the GRA said that the fake signatures were affixed to Remission of Duty Letters (commonly referred to as CG or Tax Exemption letters) used for issuing duty-free concessions for All Terrain Vehicles (ATVs) and other heavy-duty equipment employed in the mining industry which under normal circumstances would have attracted concessions for eligible applicants.
“The detection was made as part of the routine system of checks and balances in place to prevent such occurrences.
The officers found culpable, denied the allegations, but irrefutable evidence from the records of the Division which facilitates tax exemptions, has implicated them”, the statement said.
GRA Commissioner-General Khurshid Sattaur said in the statement that “this is once again a typical case of putting systems to safeguard the State’s revenues and these are being deliberately undermined by very junior ranks out of greed and reckless conduct on their part in collusion with the owners of businesses. The officers’ integrity has obviously being compromised because of the inducement offered and greed.”
He added that, “the agency’s Total Revenue Integrated Processing System (TRIPS) has once again proven how invaluable it is to have accountability and while we would never be able to avoid these occurrences in the future, we can however detect them, weed out the corrupt elements and take them to task swiftly. Fortunately all of these irregular situations leave an audit trail that not only identifies the officers involved, but more importantly, the taxpayer who would have paid the inducement to corrupt the system.” According to the GRA, such acts are typical of the practices engaged in by some elements of the private sector, who seek to evade the payment of their fair share of taxes.
It noted that this leads to the GRA being accused of being corrupt or harbouring corruption.
The agency also said that it is too early to precisely determine the level of revenues involved, if any.
“It would appear to be more a case of paying officers in order to avoid complying with the necessary documentary requirements, commonly referred to as ‘expedition’ inducement”, the GRA said
It added that once all the evidence has been gathered, the matter will be placed in the hands of the Guyana Police Force for full investigation.
“I hope and would expect that the guilty parties, both the officers and the businessmen, are charged and placed before the court,” said the Commis-sioner General.
The GRA cautioned the public against doing illegal business by offering its officers bribes.
It warned that such activities will at sometime or the other be detected and have serious consequences.
