Dear Editor,
Please permit me space in your newspaper to respond to a letter which appeared in the Wednesday June 3, 2015 edition of the Stabroek News. The letter captioned ‘Those who passed customs-broker exam in October 2014 still waiting for licences,’ highlighted the plight facing persons who had written and successfully completed the Customhouse Brokers exam in October 2014.
First off, the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) takes this opportunity to thank the letter writer for raising the issue and sincerely apologizes to all successful candidates for the unusual delay which was a result of several internal and external checks and balances that were necessary to ensure the high standards of the exam and by extension, the integrity of licence holders. The applicants may not be aware of this, but their exam sheets were marked and several internal processes followed to ensure that only suitable, upright candidates were selected in keeping with the provisions of Section 204k of the Customs Regulations.
Further, in keeping with the GRA’s established Standard Operations Procedures (SOP) and as the letter writer underscored, all relevant documentation and information were then sent to the GRA’s Law Enforcement and Investigations Division for routine background and verification checks, as well as to authenticate the information provided by the applicants to the GRA. Undoubtedly, the issuance of licences has been delayed as a result of these necessary investigations. The findings of these investigations are now complete and the GRA has commenced the process of making contact with the successful applicants to have them visit the agency and pay the relevant fees.
Persons who have not yet received any correspondence from the GRA, for the reasons stated above, are assured that they will be contacted by the GRA’s Training Division shortly, since we are now in a position to do so. It should be noted that in order to be issued with the requisite licence, the successful candidates will first be required to pay the G$5000 annual fee.
Yours faithfully,
Khurshid Sattaur
Commissioner-General
Guyana Revenue Authority
