An official of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) who has been part of the processing of applications for duty-free concessions has told Stabroek Business that the high degree of distrust of middle level and junior officials functioning in some departments has created “an unacceptable situation” that is poisoning the work environment.
Stabroek Business has spoken with two GRA functionaries in the wake of a report published in last Wednesday’s issue of the Stabroek News pertaining to the assigning of senior officers to ensure that junior functionaries apply the relevant procedures and processes in the wake of a duty-free scam within the department unearthed in May this year. The employee who claims to have been involved with the processing of applications for duty-free concessions told Stabroek Business that the level of mistrust had now reached a point where “the people at the top clearly don’t trust those who have to do the day-to-day work.” The employee told Stabroek Business that while there is no doubt that functionaries within the GRA have been involved in “rackets” those members of staff who are currently being “watched” by senior officials feel decidedly uncomfortable since they believe that they are not trusted. “It really makes no sense in having people work for you if you don’t trust them.
People should not work with the Authority if they are not trusted,” the GRA functionary said.
Asked to comment on claims attributed to GRA Commissioner General Khurshid Sattaur and reported in the Stabroek News that junior employees of the Authority were being paid significant sums of money by miners to fast-track their documents, the second employee could not provide details of any case but told Stabroek Business that “these are things that go on from time to time.”
In May this year the GRA disclosed that it had uncovered an elaborate duty-free scam that reportedly involved the forging of official documents and the issuance of duty-free concessions.
Significantly, Sattaur is quoted in the Stabroek Business as saying that four of the officers fingered in the duty-free scam remain on the job, a circumstance which the second GRA employee says “tells us a lot about the confusion that is going on inside the GRA.”
According to the official, a middle level clerical functionary, “corrupt practices go on all the time. The Commissioner General might try to give the impression that he is clamping down on corruption but the opportunities and loopholes are so many that all of them cannot be plugged.
A lot of the relatively minor cases of corruption are covered up.
According to the first GRA official, the monitoring system put in place by the GRA top brass can sometimes be “oppressive” since “not everyone is comfortable working with people looking over their shoulders.”
