The security firm tasked with guarding the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) warehouse from which $6M in foreign liquor was stolen last month has accepted liability and will pay for the alcohol, GRA head Khurshid Sattaur has said.
Sattaur told Stabroek News yesterday that persons from Professional Guard Service (PGS) Limited are currently being investigated while the security firm had accepted full liability and will be standing the cost of the liquor. He said that PGS has asked for a certain period within which to pay the money.
When contacted, the Chief Executive Officer of PGS said that he had not heard anything further but the last information he had was that the matter was being investigated by the GRA. He stated that no one was in custody but a few persons were questioned.
The GRA had said in a press release issued on May 28 that approximately $6M in foreign liquor was stolen from its warehouse and surveillance footage had implicated members of the PGS security firm guarding the facility.
The liquor was discovered missing on May 13th but the GRA only disclosed the theft on May 27, more than two weeks later. In a statement, the GRA had said that the discovery was made by officers of its Law Enforcement and Investigation Division (LEID) during a routine inventory exercise, which led to the immediate launching of an investigation on May 13th.
“As a result of the discovery, surveillance footage was reviewed and has revealed that officers of the security firm contracted to provide twenty four hours security to the said warehouse were very much involved in the reprehensible act,” it said.
“From all indications, this incident was orchestrated utilizing the cloak of darkness in an effort to avoid detection of the activity and the identification of the perpetrators. Preliminary investigations have revealed that no current employee of the GRA is involved in this incident,” the GRA had added.
