Dear Editor,
Once again, The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) is in the news and for all the wrong reasons. They are embroiled in the alleged fraud perpetuated by Mr Azruddin Mohammed. They have been caught up in that vicious cycle, where allegedly fraudulent transactions are carried out by persons within the authority and nothing is really done about it. As a developing country, we cannot continue like this any longer, it is high time that Godfrey Statia sanitise this statutory body and get his act together.
As a tax collection agency, it is positioned as the premier institution that overseas that every citizen pays his or her due taxes, however, what we see here may be a dereliction of duty as it regards the Mohammeds. Now, follow me closely, Azruddin is reportedly guilty of making a false declaration of his assets, however, in my book the certifying officer at GRA is equally guilty. The GRA officer is guilty either by bribery or gross incompetence in certifying that this was the real cost of the vehicles. In either scenario, GRA bears the brunt of the blame as well as Government who receives a bad rating.
Shouldn’t that officer been keen enough to ferret out that information? And the answer is a resounding yes! From information gathered, Mohammed is allegedly seen as a corrupt individual making those false declarations. But shouldn’t GRA been more alert, shouldn’t they have scrutinised the documents he presented to certify that his declaration was a bogus one? And the answer is yes; they should have inspected his vehicles to ensure the validity of his declared goods, something the revenue agency is conducting at the present moment. Why didn’t the officer run a cross-check to see that the invoice alleged to have been declared by Mohammed was true and correct? That officer has been negligent in his duties and must be held accountable.
Folks might surmise that it is because Mohammed is reportedly a political opponent of the Government that they are going down hard on him. And rightly so, because but for the sanctions on him, our country would have been robbed of millions, while Azruddin would have moved on with his life unperturbed.
Now, let us draw conclusions from an incident that took place in the recent past: Guyana was rocked by the story of the shipment of cocaine that was sent to Belgium. That shipment originated from Guyana, having a “clean bill of health,” from the GRA. The clandestine deal was birthed at GRA as a shipment of scrap iron, with the contents knowingly being drugs strapped in bags therein.
And how do we know this? All information regarding the owner of the shipment as well as other particulars was wiped clean of the computer; if this is not something the certifying officer fully well knew then what is? The officer/s at GRA were complicit with the shipper, there is no doubt about that. It was only after intense scrutiny of the computer from the makers of the instrument could they have found out who the shipper was. What became of the officer who did that transaction and the conclusion of that investigation? We are yet to be apprised.
Again, but for the Belgian Customs, we would have been forever in the dark as to that large shipment of drugs. The same applies to the Azruddin Mohammed case: were there no checks and balances at GRA? How was he able to get that vehicle off the wharf and into his garage? Who issued him registration documents? How did he manage to do all of this all by himself? These are the pointed questions only GRA could give an answer to.
Therefore, there should be additional charges instituted against the GRA officials who carried out those transactions. It is now quite clear that rank corruption exists at our revenue collection agency, this can only stop if there is a massive shake-up and lots of incarceration of the corrupt agents carried out. Come on Mr Statia your agency needs sanitisation!
Yours sincerely,
Neil Adams
