The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) was politically compromised under the previous administration and lacked transparency and accountability, Minister of Finance Winston Jordan says and he has pledged that the tax-collecting body will be reformed.
His comments as he presented the 2015 Budget yesterday in the National Assembly on Monday signals that GRA Head Khurshid Sattaur is unlikely to be retained as head of the body. Sattaur recently proceeded on leave. Jordan told the House that the GRA contributes the bulk of revenues intended for the Consolidated Fund and as a result of declining external inflows to Guyana, due in part to debt relief given under the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) Initiative and the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI), the body has assumed added importance over the last decade in generating resources to meet Government expenditure programmes.
He said that this role will expand in the medium term as government accelerates its programmes and projects to enable Guyanese to experience the good life.
“A diagnosis of the problems and challenges facing the entity shows: heavy top management of the authority, coupled with low staff morale and a lack of succession planning, both vertically and horizontally. Further, the authority lacked transparency and accountability, as it was politically compromised under the previous administration. Policies and procedures were poorly enforced, and there was limited intelligence gathering. Further, the cost of conducting transactions was high, which often led to involuntary compliance,” Jordan asserted.
“It is, therefore, imperative that GRA’s organizational and managerial capacity is strengthened and enhanced in a sustainable manner,” he declared.
The Finance Minister said that government will constantly review the current operational standards and bring them in line with international best practices, train a core staff to manage the Authority, and build a new ethos that emphasizes service delivery and efficient revenue collection. “The expectation is that when the tax reforms are fully implemented, this capacity strengthening will compensate for the decline in foreign inflows,” he told the House which was without the opposition PPP.
