The Chairman of the Guyana Revenue Authority, Rawle Lucas says he is being paid a monthly stipend of $10,500.
In a letter in yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek, he was responding to an anonymous letter in Kaieteur News on July 9, 2016, entitled ‘Mr. Lucas has abused his authority at GRA’ which levelled various allegations against him.
“I will not address insinuations that come from an anonymous person. However, I feel that there is a need for the public to understand the context in which I deliver service to the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) as its Board Chairman. I will start by pointing out that I am paid a monthly stipend of G$10,500 which is equivalent to US$51.00 by GRA after taxes are deducted. Please note that I pay taxes on the stipend. That amount is not even close to the minimum wage, but I accepted it because of the confidence that was placed in me to help make GRA a better place for staff and taxpayers.
“I use the stipend that I get to buy gas and pay for basic maintenance of the car that I drive. GRA does not buy gas for me. It offered to do so and I refused the offer. I turn in the vehicle to GRA whenever I am not using it. I also wish to state that, at the beginning of my term, GRA offered me benefits far greater than the stipend I receive and I refused them too”, he said.
He added that while the Board meets once per month, the GRA sends substantial amounts of work to him on a daily basis which requires his attention and preparation for Board meetings and other engagements.
“On occasions, the management of GRA requests my presence at its headquarters for meetings as often as three times per week. I comply because of what I see as the genuine efforts of elements of the organization’s management to bring positive changes to the entity. Consequently, the issues of convenience and cost come into play. Not only will I have to give up my personal time waiting for transportation to visit GRA headquarters, but under those circumstances, I will end up spending more money than the monthly stipend. While I am prepared to serve the administration and to go the extra mile as necessary, I do not think that I should be expected to subsidize the government. It is in that context that the convenience of the car which I drive and the facilities provided become very important”, Lucas, the Business Page columnist with Stabroek News, said.
He also revealed that the office of the board’s secretary had been broken into a bid to access confidential taxpayer information.
“The staff at the GRA headquarters is already cramped for work and storage space and it would have been imprudent and inconsiderate of me to inconvenience them further by occupying space there. What the letter fails to tell the public is that the space that I occupy at Critchlow Labour College is free of cost to the government. Judging from the allegations in the letter, it is obvious too that the writer has scant regard for taxpayers’ privacy and confidentiality by questioning the presence of filing cabinets in my office which are used to protect government documents and communications.
“Taxpayers ought to know that the office of the Board Secretary was broken into in an attempt to access sensitive and confidential taxpayer information which comes before the Board. GRA had to take extra measures to protect the office of the Board Secretary and its information from its own staff since the act was considered an inside job”.
“I therefore do not have anything further to say about trust and confidentiality at GRA and the extent to which staff members are harassed to violate taxpayers’ privacy”, Lucas said.
There have been several high-profile firings from the GRA in recent weeks and this is seen as being behind the letter.
Lucas added: “I hardly believe that taxpayers would quarrel with the government giving me a stipend of G$10,500 and cold water to drink. Taxpayers ought to know also that every item that is put in the refrigerator is purchased by me. And just to put the record straight, I do not have a sofa in my office and the GRA never gave me a sofa. I do not have a TV in my office, much less a 50? TV. GRA never gave me a TV. Visitors to my office must be confused now as to whom the Chairman of the GRA is for they would have never seen or experienced the convenience of those supposed facilities. In the instances where I was given property, they remain the property of the Government of Guyana and will be returned to it once I am finished using them”.
