The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) has collected over $1 billion in additional revenue with vigorous monitoring and investigations through its revamped audit department, Commissioner General Khurshid Sattaur said, noting that the body is bound by confidentiality.
He said the GRA is tasked with fulfilling its duties set out under the Revenue Authority Act and that any information gathered is to remain private and confidential. This confidentiality has barred the GRA from sharing information with the Financial Intelligence Unit, he said, adding that APNU’s recent statement about the GRA not acting as a reporting entity was flawed.
Sattaur told Stabroek News that the GRA was an independent office and that it was not to be involved in any politicisation. He said, “We cannot report on taxpayers’ affairs. That would be in contravention of the law.”
He said the FIU is welcome to share suspicious activity with the GRA and if it fell under the purview of the GRA then an investigation would be launched.
He reiterated that the GRA had to conduct investigations with facts that can be traced in a tangible way through accounting practices. He said the authority did not operate on the basis of suspicious activities; its audit department was revamped and adequately staffed to investigate and prove discrepancies.
“I can’t deal with suspicious transactions. I have to prove my case. I have to find a logical and accounting basis… I investigate and use evidence that is verified and can be properly attested to,” Sattaur stated. He noted that the FIU had a different operating procedure, but the GRA was not opposed to working with the FIU if the unit was to need assistance.
Sattaur noted that the FIU was to produce its findings to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). The DPP in a letter to Stabroek News on March 4 revealed that the FIU has only sent one report flagging suspicious activity and the report itself was missing critical details. DPP Shalimar Ali-Hack stated that her office requested clarification on the 2011 report, but to date no response has been received.
Earlier this year the APNU claimed that “alleged drug lords and money launderers openly flaunt extravagant life-styles – multiple luxury cars, billion dollar… property without fear of investigation by the Guyana Revenue Authority or the FIU.
“Many high ranking government officials and executive members of the PPP live lavish lifestyles and are the owners of multiple property worth several hundred times their annual public servant salaries and emoluments, yet their `overnight’ – new-found wealth triggers no investigations.”
Meanwhile financial analyst, Christopher Ram, told Stabroek News that the GRA is a statutory body that is bound to carry out duties cognisant of the Revenue Act.
He said that it is the FIU that needs to present itself to the GRA, because the authority deals heavily in confidentiality and security.
While the government continued to hash out the passing of the money-laundering legislation, Attorney General Anil Nandlall, has stated that the National Task Force created as the non-legislative component to the money-laundering legislation was inclusive of various agencies including the GRA and the FIU sharing information. He stated that guidelines were already established to ensure cross agency cooperation.
When asked by Stabroek News about the National Task Force, Sattaur repeated that the GRA was open to assisting other agencies, but that he was not aware of the task force’s authority as yet.
