PPP wants Police to probe alleged fraud at GRA over seized vehicles

Opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has approached the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to investigate alleged fraud at the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) over seized vehicles that find their way onto the streets without being registered or gazetted.

According to Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, they were forced to make this move owing to inaction on the part of the GRA Commissioner General, Godfrey Statia to look into the matter.
“(Thursday) we wrote the Police. If the GRA is not going to write the Police, they have now been written to because it’s fraud. So let’s see what the Police will do on this matter,” Jagdeo noted.
The Opposition Leader told reporters at last week’s press conference that hundreds of motor vehicles were being imported into Guyana and were not being placed on the register for Want of Entry and, therefore, were never gazetted and put up for action. In fact, Jagdeo posited that these motor vehicles, most of which were luxury vehicles, were finding their way onto the streets.
“The hundreds of luxury vehicles like Land Cruisers, Lexus, Hummers, BMW that came into the country were seized by GRA, never made it to the register for the want of entry and so were never gazetted and placed at the auctions. These hundreds of vehicles found their way into the hands of people sympathetic to the Government resulting in billions of dollars of lost revenue,” he disclosed.
Jagdeo went on to outline that most recently, two vehicles, both Land Cruisers, were brought into Guyana from Venezuela and were seized by the GRA in Lethem, back in May 2019. However, in a turn of events, the very same vehicles were then registered to a member of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), but backdated to March 14, 2019.
In documents seen by the Opposition Leader, for the vehicles PXX 5337 and PXX 6338, there were several blank areas which are required to be filled by GRA, including the sourcing area.
“So, after my press conference, I was hoping that the Commissioner General would pick up his phone and say ‘is this so? When did the vehicles come in?’ They would have told him and then he would have asked ‘when were they registered?’ And if he was told this, the next thing he would do is to put out a statement and call in the Police because this is corruption. (It) is fraud to backdate a vehicle (document and) I’m not even sure that it’s sold. It might be given or sold below value. So until now, nothing, not a word!” Jagdeo pointed out.
Further questioned on the matter, the Opposition Leader argued that if the GRA Head did not have anything to hide, then he should call the Auditor General in to prove the issue.
“I want to give him the benefit of the doubt: maybe he doesn’t know about this information, but I ask if the Commissioner doesn’t have anything to hide too, he would call in the Auditor General. I have not seen any movement on that,” Jagdeo contended.
As such, the Opposition Leader noted that his Party had to act on the matter and get the Police involved. He added too that they would be closely monitoring the issue to see the outcome.
Earlier this month when Jagdeo had first made this fraud claim, local media reported Statia confirming that indeed the vehicles were seized and disposed of. However, he had indicated that he would have to investigate the other allegations being made by the Opposition Leader before he could comment.
But efforts to contact the GRA Head for an update on the matter were futile.