PETER, PAUL AND SATTAUR

Mar 14, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The Commissioner-General of the Guyana Revenue Authority has indicated that his agency has implemented almost all of the recommendations of the Task Force which investigated allegations about the illegal importation of beer. However, in the same way as the Commissioner-General can claim that he has implemented those recommendations which relate to the dismissal and disciplining of members of his staff, he should also indicate why he is reluctant to implement the specific recommendations which relate to the reinstatement of officers who were cleared of wrong-doing.
After all, a man of integrity must be consistent. One cannot implement those recommendations which relate only to dismissal, charges and administrative changes, and leave aside those relating to reinstatement.
So I ask the Commissioner-General, a self-professed man of integrity who has worked hard over the years to ensure an untainted image and reputation, to explain why his organisation has been selective in implementing the recommendations of the Task Force which investigated the Polar Beer matter.
Surely, the failure to implement cannot be due to the fact that the Task Force allegedly did not satisfy the full mandate given to it. Surely, a man of integrity would know that the officers who were exonerated of involvement in the scandal cannot be held culpable for any failings of the investigating team. So, as a man of integrity, I ask of the Commissioner-General to explain this anomaly in not implementing the specific recommendations of the probe team which recommended the reinstatement of the officers. I know that the Commissioner-General is a busy man and has a great deal of work to do in going after tax-dodgers in this country. I know that this process is not an easy one and often entails the pulling of files for audit.
I wish to support the Commissioner-General in this work and can assure him that, just as how his department has files, newspapers also have files. And over the past year we have been receiving a great deal of information.
We have information on persons and deals, and shall be making these public in due course so that the people of this country can understand and appreciate that there are persons out there whose files also need to be pulled, and we hope that when we make these things public that their files will be pulled, and that they would be asked to explain their financial standing.
I hope when these things are made public that there is no hue and cry, as there is now, about the media acting irresponsibly, because the media is as much a watchdog as the tax-collection agency.
Fighting corruption is important in any society, but the most effective weapon against corruption is when those at the top lead by example, and these include the politicians of this country. The people of Guyana are going to be suspicious of polygraph testing as long as they feel that the politicians are excluded. The Guyanese people are never going to support this measure as long as it is only applied to selected agencies.
Right now there are testimonies being laid before the courts in the United States about person or persons within the government having contacts/meetings with someone charged with drug dealings. This is untested evidence, and therefore should not be used to indict any person so fingered.
However, we must understand that the average Guyanese is going to question how junior staff, not the subject of any allegation or investigation, can be asked to undergo polygraph testing when we now have in the public domain an untested statement accusing a sitting Minister of the government of having contact with a drug accused, but that sitting Minister is not being asked to undergo a polygraph.
As the average Guyanese would say, what is good for Peter must be good for Paul. And what is good for Paul must be good for all.
But there is also another danger which I hope that those who are promoting these tests appreciate. These tests can exacerbate the divisions in this country and deepen ethnic strife. These tests are now being applied within a public sector, which traditionally has been dominated by Afro-Guyanese. And there is always going to be that fear, however unjustified, that these tests can lead to the dismissal of large numbers of Afro-Guyanese in one of the few remaining areas of public life where they have some significant presence.
Now, I am sure it is NOT the intention of these tests to marginalise anyone. But there is bound, in our fractured society, to be that concern.