Employees of the majority Russian-owned Bauxite Company of Guyana Inc (BCGI) “threatened” Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) auditors a few months ago when they went to undertake an audit of the company saying they will close the company’s operations if the tax authorities persisted, GRA Commissioner General Godfrey Statia said.
But their threats did not scare Statia who said that his agency will undertake its mandate without fear. “When I sent my guys there to begin the audit, they threatened them and told them that if they don’t stop the audit, they will close down the company,” Statia said when asked by Stabroek News on Friday about the company’s relations with the agency.
After over 15 years working here and with sweeping tax concessions for fuel and equipment, the company has always said that it was not making any profits from its operations.
Last year, the company again cited no profitability as it argued with the union representing the workers that it could not afford increases to wages and salaries.
The GRA, according to Statia, undertook to have an audit of the company’s operations but was met with hostility. But the agency pressed on with its work.
While another matter between the two sides is currently engaging the court, Statia said that from the audit, it was found that the company owed the government of Guyana significant sums in taxes; the figure was also disputed.
However, he said, BCGI accepted that it owes the GRA and they are working to resolve this.
“From certain parts of the audit, we decided, you know, what we said was, ‘look, until these things are reconciled, pay what you say you would have owed’,” he explained. BCGI agreed to the GRA’s interim stance.
“The mere fact that they could agree that they could pay what they have owed, shows that somewhere along the line they recognise they were not complying. It is as simple as that,” Statia said.
But the company late last month laid off hundreds of workers saying they did not get the concession for duty-free importation of fuel. As such, they informed employees in the notice that the downsizing of operations was a result of a “fuel shortage.”
The announcement is the latest crisis in relations between the company and workers, which have been underpinned by acrimony over wages and conditions. Talks on wages have been stalled for months and workers may see these layoffs as an attempt to pressure them.
Statia said that the company promised to pay their owed sums before the GRA releases any order on their operational concessions but had not made the requisite payment.
“As to the issue of whether we held back the letter or not, they had said that they would pay at a particular time, right. So you had the exemption letter waiting on them but they were not bringing the cheque. As soon as that is paid, you release it [the exemption letter], nothing else, and that is a fact. So all the nonsense they are peddling in the newspaper about letter and me stopping the letters, No I did not,” he said.
