The Disciplinary Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Guyana (ICAG) is probing an allegation of misconduct against Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) Commissioner-General Khurshid Sattaur, who yesterday accused the members of the accountancy body of colluding with the complainant, Kaieteur News publisher Glen Lall, to discredit him.
Sattaur accused members of the ICAG of bias in investigating the complaint and demanded the process be brought to an end immediately, while noting that he was considering reporting them for misconduct and malpractice to the entity’s parent body in the UK.
Lall, in an invited comment to Stabroek News, dismissed Sattaur’s accusations as “beyond baseless.”
The businessman stated that the GRA head went beyond his boundaries to give out personal information about the various media houses in Guyana to former president Bharrat Jagdeo, who is a private citizen.
“They are all set to come after me. Who is waging a war and who is destroying who? Lall or them?” he asked before adding that in addition to the complaint filed with ICAG, he has already reported the matter to the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).
Sattaur is being accused of abusing his office and breaching secrecy regulations by leaking confidential information on a taxpayer.
Lall lodged his formal complaint against Sattuar with the local body on October 7.
Sattaur is a member of the ICAG.
According to a letter of acknowledgement, dated October 21 and which was seen by this newspaper, the Council looked at the contents of the complaint at an October 14, 2014 meeting and it was agreed that the matter will be referred to the Investigations Committee in accordance with the Institute’s by-laws.
The ACCA also acknowledged receipt of Lall’s complaint, which was received on October 22. The acknowledgement letter, which was seen by this newspaper, requested Lall to provide some information no later than November 5. Some of the information requested relates to whether Lall would come forward and give evidence, can be named, for him to provide all evidence, including copies of all relevant documents.
Lall told Stabroek News that while he firmly believes that these two entities will investigate his complaints properly, he had no confidence that he will get justice here in Guyana.
“I am ready to die and ready to go down fighting,” he said, before adding that Sattaur’s email correspondences speak for themselves. He said that copies of these emails and others have been handed over to ICAG and ACCA to aid them in their investigations.
‘Obvious collusion’
Sattaur, in an almost two-page long press release, yesterday said that he was “extremely disturbed” after being notified by way of a letter, dated October 24, 2014 and signed by Persaud, that the Disciplinary Committee of the ICAG had ordered that, as a standard procedure, he should respond to the allegations made against him in complaint made by Lall.
He noted that the letter stated that the decision was taken after a meeting on October 22, 2014 to deliberate on the complaint.
Sattaur noted that on October 22, Kaieteur News had carried a front page article referring to a decision taken to undertake a probe.
“What is extremely irregular and disturbing is the fact that the meeting of the Disciplinary Committee which according to the letter had deliberations on Wednesday 22/10 and informed the Council of its decision presumably after the meeting was concluded, yet this information appeared in the headlines of the KN newspaper of the very day of Wednesday 22/10 edition,” the release said contending that this is evidence that Lall was informed of the committee’s decision prior to the deliberations.
Sattaur questioned how it is possible for a media outlet to publish the decision of an independent investigative agency one day before it was actually made. Further, the release questioned how the communication to the Commissioner-General could be officially made two days after it was published in a newspaper owned by the complainant.
Sattaur is also contending that he is not engaged in public practice and therefore is not subject to the ethics that professional accountants subscribe to; he stated that he is a public servant and carries out a statutory function prescribed in law. As a result, he has questioned how he could be subject to disciplinary proceedings. “This suggests extreme bias and lack of knowledge of their own byelaws,” he argued.
Having discovered what he claims is glaring evidence of “obvious collusion” between Lall and the ICAG, Sattaur called on the Council to “stop this charade and travesty immediately.” He added that a report that will be lodged with the ICAG parent body in the UK pertaining to the “highly irregular actions” on the part of the members of the local Disciplinary Committee. Clippings of the newspaper article and letter stating the council’s decision made on the very same day will be submitted as evidence, the release said.
Sattaur also said he intends to write the ACCA parent body in the UK asking for an investigation to be conducted into “this obvious collusion” to discredit his good name and standing as an “outstanding FCA member.”
He also charged that it would appear also that some of the ICAG may be “aiding and abetting” what he claimed to be the Kaieteur News’ “alleged reckless behaviour of fraudulent under reporting of income” and have now joined forces with Lall to tarnish his image in hopes of preventing an audit.
Sattaur is maintaining that he has nothing to hide but is taking the position that he cannot submit himself to an investigation for a very serious offence by a panel comprising of Paul Chan A Sue, Khalid Ali and Persaud.
As a result, the release said Sattaur’s lawyers are considering action against the ICAG members including reporting their conduct to the organisation’s parent body in the UK.
Further, it was stated that if Sattaur’s demand for the immediate revocation of the probe is not adhered to, “the Commissioner-General will publish his response to the clarification sought by the disciplinary committee and take other measures not limited to legal action to prevent any further involvement of the institute in this matter.”
Lall and Sattaur have been locked in a battle ever since it was revealed that Lall was under investigated by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) for reportedly being involved in a remigrant duty-free concession scam. Lall, his wife and a remigrant couple have since been taken before the court on charges related to tax evasion.
The Kaieteur News, meanwhile, has recently published what appeared to be email exchanges between Sattaur and Attorney-General Anil Nandlall discussing actions to be taken against the Kaieteur News, which the newspaper contends is the target of a plot to shut it down. It also suggested that Sattaur released tax information on the four daily newspapers to former president Jagdeo. The GRA has since announced an internal probe of the leak of confidential information while also claiming that the emails published by the newspaper were fakes.
