Dear Editor,
I wish to respond to Minister Gaskin’s letter on the trusted trader programme (see, “Primary focus of Trusted Trader programme is business facilitation”, SN, April 18, 2016). The Minister stated “I am astonished by the vehemence with which he rejects the simple notion that some businesses can actually be trusted to honour their end of a transaction to the extent that it can be concluded minus some of the red tape.” Why should this even occur in the absence of dramatic and far-reaching reforms to the entire custom system including a fulsome attack on corruption in its ranks? On what basis is this trust measured, especially when we exist in a broken and corrupt system engendered by systemic corruption, failure, ineptitude and shortcomings stemming from the time of Independence and grown epic during the recent PPP rule? How is creating a preferential programme any different from the corrupt preferential programme running on ministerial interference that existed before? The Minister says the programme’s primary focus is on business facilitation, not tackling corruption. Well, nothing will facilitate business more than tackling corruption. Corruption and red tape are inseparable in Guyana. Red tape is one key way for the corrupt in government agencies to try to extract pecuniary benefits from corruption. We have a government that itself is questionable in its approach here and its recent dealings with Baishanlin and the absurd tax settlement with DDL do not help its case of implementing this selective, discriminatory and preferential system.
The Minister said “The Trusted Trader Programme is not meant to be a total solution, but rather one of a series of interventions designed to make Guyana an easier and better place to do business.” Without widespread changes to the entire customs infrastructure and in particular focusing on its corruption and sloth derived from such corruption, this is really government-inspired and facilitated action that could engender even more corruption. Try the total solution first. Not avoidance or haphazard half-baked steps. Level and improve the playing field for all and eliminate bureaucracy for all and then implement your trusted trader programme.
The Minister states “Guyana has a significant informal economy in which far too many businesses are not playing by the rules that govern how they should operate. These businesses flourish by ignoring the laws, regulations and bureaucracy that constrain and frustrate legitimate businesses.” Well, duh! Tell us something we don’t already know. That’s why the people elected your government to office. To fix the entire system, not create even more systemic unfairness. I am intrigued with the criteria the Minister will come up with because what this will effectively do is it will help some favoured companies to avoid the corruption while others are forced to deal with it. Stop this avoidance nonsense. Did this Minister consider that some companies under the PPP were forced to bend the rules to survive or were held hostage by a corrupt custom system that pushed them into corruption? Did the Minister consider that those who may have paid bribes before may show up as most compliant in the government’s database? Does the Minister recognise that the corrupt within the GRA and other government agencies deliberately create red tape to facilitate bribes and other benefits? How is this fiasco not going to annihilate many legitimate business who fail to make the cut and get on the Minister’s list of favoured companies when those companies will be strapped with having to make corrupt payments to the unreformed customs department and having their goods delayed because they failed to get inner circle circumvention?
The Minister states “The Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) programmes which are recognised by the World Customs Association and the World Trade Organisation Trade Facilitation Agreement are currently operational in sixty-six countries. Sixteen others have AEO programmes waiting to be launched and another twenty-two have other forms of related operational compliance programmes.” This means absolutely squat if these programmes operate in corrupt countries and engender the very problems of governmental favouritism, economic derailment, restraint of trade, preferentialism and other destructive repercussions we will reap from this ridiculous concept as peddled by this government. Many of the countries that have implemented this system have significantly better and far less corrupt or bureaucratic customs systems in place.
Is this trusted trader programme going to extend to other government agencies apart from the GRA? If so, it is going to deepen this nightmare of government-pushed preferentialism without altering the underlying decrepit system. Name the criteria and the companies currently under consideration.
Yours faithfully,
M. Maxwell
