Corruption inside GRA and no apparent action

Dec 17, 2009 Editorial

Improvements in the system at the Licence Revenue Department of the Guyana Revenue Authority have led to a discovery that was common knowledge all the time. Everyone knew that there was corruption there and that with a few dollars businessmen could have circumvented the system.
Long before the Licence Revenue Department began computerizing the system, there were reports of people procuring drivers’ licences without even being tested. Some of these were detected but precious few because in later cases of vehicular transgressions when the courts ordered that the licence be suspended for a certain period, the drivers were back on the road driving as though nothing had happened.
Those who were stopped by the police simply produced a document and life went on until the driver got into another accident and headed back to court.
Then there were the cases of vehicles bearing the same number plate. This suggested that these were either not registered or that someone inside the Licence Revenue Department did whatever is done there and provided something permitting the vehicle to use the roads.
Surprisingly, in every case that this was detected the matter seemed to peter out because there were no more reports and queries often came up blank. In such conditions the Guyana Revenue Authority should order that the vehicle be seized until the requisite taxes and duties were paid.
Lo and behold, as the process of computerization has begun the Guyana Revenue Authority is claiming that there are some 500 unregistered vehicles in the system. This may not sound a lot when one considers that there are about 80,000 vehicles on the roads. However, when one considers the size of these vehicles and the attendant duties then one can readily imagine the loss to the coffers.
One man got caught up because he attempted to change a registration. All of a sudden the people in the revenue department without so much as a cursory check, knew that the vehicle had fake registration. The man has gone to the press with his story and it is most revealing.
The man talks about fake registration certificates, two of them in this case, with what appear to be authentic stamps. He talks about changed VIN numbers and the like.
In this case the GRA has seized the vehicle but this course of action has come four years too late. There is evidence that legitimate motor vehicle licences were issued to the vehicle over the past four years. In fact, the vendor actually succeeded in getting a licence for this year prior to the sale.
In this case the vendor was a prominent person in the society. He headed one of the largest retail and hire purchase departments. He was a foreigner operating in Guyana. The suggestion is that he was able to pay someone inside the department to facilitate the licences. If he was duped into buying an unregistered vehicle in the first instance he did a pretty good job of getting that vehicle ‘legitimised’ until he was ready to part with it.
The big question here is whether there are checks and balances. How could someone get a valid licence for a vehicle when there is no registration? Surely there has been corruption and fraud. And since it was unlikely that the same person would have been there to issue the licence the corruption must have been more widespread than thought.
Now that it has been established that there is corruption inside the Licence Revenue Department one would expect an investigation but so far there is no word of that except the involvement of the police to determine how the foreigner was able to escape notice with bogus documents for so long.
There must be some explanation for what went on and what has been going on with the other 500 vehicles. And further, having detected the unlicenced, one must ask, “Where are they?” Why have they not been seized?

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Corruption inside GRA and no apparent action

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