THE GRA AND THE POLYGRAPH

Mar 10, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

I hope that the President of Guyana would explain the position that use of polygraphs is best done in small units rather than for agencies which have hundreds of staff.
I do understand the scientific basis upon which the President believes that there will be problems with the polygraph and I hope that he explains this statement that he made at his press conference yesterday afternoon.
Why would there be no problems with the polygraph done for CANU officers but there are going to be problems in doing polygraphs say for a larger agency like the Guyana Revenue Authority?
When the issue of integrity testing was first made public, incidentally by the President himself, we were never told that such testing has its problems when conducted in agencies which are heavily staffed. When did the President discover that polygraphs would prove problematic when conducted on larger units?
Or is this problem only now being recognised because questions are being asked about the tests which are supposed to have been administered on the staff of the Guyana Revenue Authority.
One of the questions being asked is why the tests are not being commenced from the most senior officers, such as the head and his deputy. After all, isn’t example best set from the top?
And there is nothing to fear since Mr. Sattaur, the head of the GRA, is not going to fail any test because he is a man of integrity who has worked hard to ensure an untainted image and reputation.
There is no way Sattaur is going to fail any polygraph and therefore there should be little hesitation in asking the head to take the polygraph since this would encourage his staff to be more willing to do the same and avoid all this problem.
One of the reasons which have been suggested for him not being identified for the test is because he and his deputy are said to be statutory officers. But was the head of CANU not also a statutory office, and was he not required to take the test?
So why should the Commissioner General or his deputy not take the test? After all, being statutory officers do not exempt them from having to declare their assets to the Integrity Commission.
The Head of CANU is also required to declare his assets to the Integrity Commission and the former head of CANU submitted to the polygraph so why should other statutory officers who are required to make declarations to the Integrity Commission not also declare their assets.
A group of revenue officers recently declined to take part in the polygraph tests because of the nature of the questions they were required to answer. When a senior officer of the GRA was asked why these particular officers were chosen, he explained that it had to do with the fact that they interfaced with the public. Yet, it was also suggested that one person may have been thrown in as a red herring.
So just how many red herrings are going to be thrown in? And what happens if a red herring fails the test. Is that person going to be exempt from sanctions? It is concerns like these which lead to a loss of confidence in polygraphs.
All public workers should now take a decision that they will NOT submit themselves to polygraph testing since it is not an accepted test, within our legal system, of the honesty of any individual. People must take a stand against this sort of nonsense and not allow themselves to become pawns in a public relations gimmick, intended to make the government look serious about probity in public life. If the government wishes to be taken seriously; if it wishes to enhance its image, it would begin the testing from the top and demand that the President and the Cabinet lead by example.
Since the President said that the tests are better done on smaller units, he should have no hesitation asking his ministers to take the test since Cabinet is a small unit and therefore there is going to be fewer problems, according to his reasoning, with conducting the test on such a small unit.
I also hope that we will be told just what it is costing the tax payers of this country to conduct these tests. I hope we will be told the name of the company which is conducting the tests and why persons were required to go to an East Coast location to have the test administered.
I hope they will advise the nation as to whether there was selective tendering for these services and whether it was advertised. I hope we will be told as to the company that is conducting the tests and its track record in providing such services.

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