The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) today said that following an advertisement inviting bids for the purchase of a container containing alcoholic beverages, the highest bid of $35.9m was provided by a prominent beverage company which it did not name.
An advertisement on the sale of the liquor was published during the period October 31-November 4, 2015 inviting bids to purchase a quantity of alcohol. GRA said in a release that it received a total of twenty one bids. These were subsequently opened on November 5 and based on an analysis conducted it was revealed that the beverage company provided the highest bid in the sum of $35,960,000.
The Revenue Authority says it is confident that based on the reputation of this company the payment documents for the alcohol beverages will not be recycled.
In the advertisement, the GRA had listed the items up for sale as:
*739 cases of Absolut Vodka (12×1 lt)
*49 cases of Johnnie Walker Black (12×1 lt)
*25 cases of Johnnie Walker Double Black (12×1 lt)
*24 cases of Hennessy (12×750 ml)
*50 cases of Coffee Patron (6×750 ml)
*100 cases of Jagermeister SE (6×1 lt)
*99 cases of Tequila (12×750 ml)
The sale was done in accordance with Section 225 of the Customs Act and in the absence of a claim, the GRA notice said. It offered no information on who the consignee might have been.
The notice had said that prospective bidders should be free of all tax liabilities and also present their personal identification.
In May, the GRA reported the disappearance of approximately $6M worth of foreign liquor from its Eccles Warehouse Facility.
The liquor was discovered missing on May 13 but the GRA only disclosed this on May 28, more than two weeks later.
In a statement, it said that “This discovery was made by officers of the Agency’s Law Enforcement and Investigation Division … during a routine inventory exercise, which led to the immediate launching of an investigation on May 13, 2015.
“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. In light of this the GRA has since provided copies of the recording to the management of the private security firm and has indicated to them that they are being held culpable”, the statement said.
It appears that the matter is being settled quietly as no charges have been brought by the GRA.
