President Donald Ramotar used the private jet service of alleged smuggler Khamraj Lall on three occasions for state visits, the government admitted yesterday, while saying that payments were made each time for the charter.
The government’s disclosure came amidst questions about the head of state’s use of the jet on which Lall was held last week in Puerto Rico with over US$620,000 hidden away.
Questions have been raised about the propriety of the President’s charter since the trip would have been illegal given that Lall’s Exec Jet Club service is registered as a Private Jet Club and not for charter. The administration’s admission yesterday that President Ramotar has used the service for travel to neighbouring Brazil and two other destinations and paid for the charter reiterated the impropriety. “The company’s services were procured on three occasions by the Government of Guyana for transporting delegations led by President Donald Ramotar to official State business overseas,” the administration said in a statement. “On all such occasions, payments were rendered for the charter of an aircraft operated by the Exec Jet Club, Guyana,” it added.
The government statement said that it had noted with interest recent media reports pointing to alleged breaches of Federal Customs regulations of the United States of America, by the Exec Jet Club Guyana, which operates out of the Kaylee Service Station, East Bank Demerara.
Security sources have said that the arrest of Lall with the huge amount of cash would be deeply embarrassing to the government here and would raise a host of security questions. Sources say the administration was likely to do an immediate review of the permission for Lall to have a private hangar at Timehri and it was likely that it would be revoked.
‘No infraction’
Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) head Zulficar Mohammed, who returned to Guyana yesterday, broke his agency’s silence saying that as far as the agency knows, there have been no civil aviation infractions here by Lall. “There has been no infraction. It is an American-registered aircraft and it can fly from point A to B once a flight plan is provided and he always provided that,” Mohammed said.
“What he has arranged to do is, because he lives in Guyana, is have it (his jets) parked here so it is an international flight coming in and leaving. Like any (other international flight), he has to fill out a form to say that he is flying from point A to B and then that is approved by us and we send it to the minister for approval,” he added.
Mohammed said that Lall had wanted to have the company registered here and it became a part of his long-term business plan instead of immediate because it would have to meet a series of requirements and would have also needed to have maintenance facilities here. “He was thinking in terms of getting something in Guyana but for him to get that he has to meet a lot of requirements and maintenance requirements and so. That was his long term proposal but it hasn’t gone through,” he explained.
Mohammed pointed out that Lall will have to face whatever consequences is determined in Puerto Rico without local interference as he is an American citizen caught on American soil doing an alleged illegal act. He said that if Lall’s jet company was locally registered, the process would have been different.
He also pointed out that the issue of whether Lall’s business is allowed to retain the hangar at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) is a matter for the airport and not his, as the GCAA is not responsible for approving hangars for companies. “We only approve his flight on a one off at a time thing. The hangar issue it is the airport who will deal with that…it is them not us who determines that, you know, if you reach their requirement, like if you can pay the rental and that kind of thing,” he stated.
‘Not given any thought’
Since Lall’s arrest a persistent question has been what would have happened to the US$620,000 if the plane had landed at Timehri as planned after transiting the US Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, where federal agents intercepted the flight. Money-sniffing dogs would have been required here to detect the money.
The opposition on Thursday called on the government to conduct a thorough investigation into Lall’s operations here, saying that it may reveal breaches including tax evasion.
Stabroek News understands that the United States’ Internal Revenue Authority (IRS) has launched an investigation to determine if Lall’s US-registered businesses are in violation of any tax laws.
However, head of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) Khurshid Sattaur yesterday said that he is presently not interested in investigating the local businesses of Lall.
“I haven’t given the matter any thought. I am trying to recover here from Kaieteur News so I am more concerned about catching up on lost grounds than an airplane flying in the air,” Sattaur told Stabroek News yesterday.
Sattaur was adamant that the tax agency is not seeing any investigation as a matter of urgency. “I said—you write that—I said that I am more concerned about catching on lost ground than a plane,” the GRA Commissioner-General stressed before hanging up his phone.
Stressing that a Commission of Inquiry was needed, Opposition Leader David Granger said on Thursday that that even now several issues have been highlighted that need remedial action. “In the first instance we know that the aircraft was headed for Guyana and it is an indication that our own money laundering legislation has been ineffective. No one knows if there were other flights with other monies on them,” he said.
“Then from the point of the CJIA, we see other things that the enforcement at CJIA seems to have been very lax. The plane was given the go-ahead to come and go as it please,” he added. Granger said it seems that the plane might have been given certain privileges, security and otherwise, because of its affiliation to the Head of State,” he said.
“It was not a secret operation. It indicates that the aircraft was used for the Head-of-State and when that happens it might not have conformed to the normal security procedures and checks as other private jets,” he added.
