Fate of suspended Customs officers still uncertain

Jan 24, 2009 News

…this despite multi-task force’s recommendation of reinstatement

The fate of the six Customs officers who were recommended for reinstatement remains uncertain at this point in time, given that their reinstatement will have to be a decision of the Board of Directors of the Guyana Revenue Authority.

GRA Commissioner-General Khurshid Sattaur

This is according to GRA Commissioner-General Khurshid Sattaur, who, in an invited comment, said that compliance with the stipulated recommendations relative to the reinstatement of the employees was out of his hands.

He noted that the decision to suspend the employees pending an investigation was made by the board.

Sattaur emphasised that the persons involved were senior officers.

According to the completed report into the allegations, the task force that was set up by President Bharrat Jagdeo to investigate alleged improprieties between the GRA officers, a broker and Fidelity Investment/Kong Inc recommended that GRA takes the necessary disciplinary action against 15 of its senior staffers, who have all been found guilty of various offences.

The task force also recommended that the officers — Michelle Matthias-Smartt, Rhonda Gladd, Karen Bobb-Semple, Ausya Greenidge, Satesh Basdeo, Anthony Girdhari, Rabindra Ramsuran, Sadesh Pitamber, Vickie Sooknanan, Radha Singh, Ann Noel, Simone Herod, Jasoda Mohamed, Georgeanna Pryce-Roberts and Roopnarine Ramkishun — be charged criminally for the relevant offences they had committed.

As it relates to acting Director, Valuation and Classification, Paul Prescod; Level II Customs Officer John Tularam; Entry Processing Unit Supervisor Nityanand Narootandeo; and VAT and Excise Tax Deputy Commissioner Rohan Beekhoo, it was recommended that the GRA reinstates them, but with warning letters to be more vigilant in the execution of their duties.

Royan Sattaur, a level II Clerk, and Ramnarine Makardajh, acting Director, Enforcement Section, were all recommended to be fully reinstated in their jobs.

As it relates to the other recommendation by the task force, Sattaur said that the report was some six months late, in that all of the recommended measures, excluding the reinstatement of the officers, have already been implemented.

Responding to comments by Auditor-General Deodat Sharma to the effect that several loopholes exist at GRA, allowing an importer to defraud the Government of hundreds of millions of dollars, Sattaur said that this was not the case.

He insisted that, each day, the GRA staffers were working ardently to ensure that all revenue is collected, but it was the “wicked and unpatriotic” businessmen who entice and subsequently corrupt Customs officers.

The Auditor-General is now questioning how many other importers may have managed to elude paying the requisite taxes to the state.

According to Sharma, there still exists the possibility that it could happen again, but he hinted that the recommendations in the now completed and publicised report could stop it from happening.