The Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) yesterday accused Chairman of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) Board Rawle Lucas of creating a hostile environment for staffers of the agency but he accused the union of insincerity while saying that he was improving conditions for workers.
“The union is only doing this out of self-interest. It is not about ensuring the welfare of the staff… the union seems to be unhappy about something…,” Lucas told Stabroek News yesterday.
“The Guyana Public Service Union wishes to note its observations that the external interference of Mr. Rawle Lucas, Chairman of the Governing Board of the Revenue Authority has moved the environment of the organization to a hostile and insecure one for staff at all levels evidently resulting in low morale and motivation,” the union said yesterday in a statement, while adding that it has raised the matter with President David Granger.
“The actions taken by the Chairman, particularly those recently executed may be deemed excessive and above that authorized by Act No. 13 of the Revenue Authority Act 1996 Revised Edition 2004. Further, there seems to be the continued culture of the past to effect promotions which disposed (of) experienced and qualified staff, and to terminate and dismiss staff at will and without due process,” it added.
While the union did not specify Lucas’ “excessive” actions, the Chairman late last month had announced a major shake-up in the management of the revenue body, including the removal of the heads of its Customs and Human Resources divisions for unsatisfactory performance and the appointment of a Deputy Commissioner-General.
Lucas had announced that Jameel Baksh, the Head of the Customs, Excise and Trade operations, and Archana Joshi, Head of the Human Resource Management Department, had been relieved of their duties. “We were not satisfied with the extent to which our revenues were being collected with respect to our customs operations and felt that it was perhaps in the best interest of the organization to make some changes,” he later said, when asked about the reason behind their removal.
Lucas identified Lancelot Wills, an international trade lawyer as the person who will take over the customs portfolio.
On Sunday, the GRA Chairman rejected accusations made by an anonymous letter writer in the Kaieteur News.
In that letter, he defended decisions made as it pertained to securing taxpayers’ confidentiality. “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,” he wrote.
“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,” he added.
Lucas yesterday said he won’t be pulled into speculating on the motive of the GPSU’s release but added that he needed to point out that for the union to say he was not good for the staffers at GRA was without basis.
He noted that before his appointment as Chairman, the GPSU remained silent on the daily plight faced by employees of the GRA as it pertained to their working conditions.
“The union used to be very selective in its observations, with respect to the GRA, very selective,” Lucas asserted.
“In my view, it is taking a view that is totally incoherent with the board and the welfare of the staff. It seems to have forgotten that it was this Board, under this government, that raised the issue of the working conditions of the staff,” he added.
The GPSU, in its correspondence, said that it is also offended with what it called Lucas’ “unfair categorization of the staff as being untrustworthy and apparently undermining authority and revenue targets,” which it claims are fundamental roles, by virtue of their employment.
As a result, the union said it has written to President Granger, Minister of Finance Winston Jordan and Attorney General Basil Williams.
“Staff are assured that the Union would stand resolutely with them throughout all challenges and excessive action being meted out arbitrarily and without merit. We however, urged all staff to maintain their professionalism and to continue to deliver quality service to the public which enhances the image of the Revenue Authority in the national interest,” GPSU stated.
It also advised that the union is in support of its members of the GRA who are currently being confronted with “unwarranted challenges.”
Lucas questioned whether the union was speaking for the majority of workers of the agency and said that the union needs to first be recognized as the representative of workers of the GRA. “The first thing is the union has to be granted recognition and that hasn’t happened as yet,” the Chairman asserted.
He said that before judging decisions made by the board, persons need to hear the arguments for both sides as “you only know it, if you live in it.”
Nonetheless, he said the GRA’s Board welcomes discussions on bettering the working conditions of employees of the agency and it is their welfare that is paramount when human resource decisions, among others, are made.
