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The Guyana Revenue Authority has a zero tolerance position on fraud

Aug 31, 2011 Letters

 

Dear Editor,
The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) is once again expressing its dissatisfaction with the ‘print and apologize’ methodology employed by the Kaieteur News.
Reference is hereby made to the letter which appeared in the Sunday, August 28, 2011  edition of the Kaieteur News, captioned ‘Customs Officers are a football that can be kicked about’ and purportedly written by Mr. Royston Tudor. This letter which questioned the delay in payment of overtime and the disciplinary actions taken as it relates to irregularities within the agency, should have been sent to the Commissioner-General for his comments before publication, since it was clearly aimed at undermining the agency.
The fact that the newspaper was forced to apologize in its subsequent edition, does not erase the fact that it has now tarnished the image of the officer whose signature was used in a malicious manner. The GRA wishes to state the following: Merchants’ Overtime is paid to staff authorized to work outside official working hours. As such, any Officer who falsely claims for overtime when he/she was not at the prescribed location, will be investigated and once found guilty will face sanctions, as recommended by the Internal Affairs Division of GRA.
While GRA acknowledges that there has been a delay in the payment of overtime, this delay has been caused by the failure of Officers to follow the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the approval of overtime.  Over the last few months, the relevant departments have been working tirelessly to rectify this issue and it is expected that officers will be paid shortly for any overtime work.
As it relates to the suspension of the Officers who were not present at their duty station, investigations carried out by the Internal Affairs Division, revealed that the officers were disciplined for claiming overtime, when they were in fact remotely at their location. This deception, using taxpayers’ funds, is a criminal act and ought to have had a stronger sanction meted out.
Further,  it  must  be  noted  that  the  GRA  does  not  implement sanctions without  the completion of a thorough investigation by the Internal Affairs Division of the agency. This Division is mandated to ensure that actions and practices of the staff in the course of executing their responsibilities and duties are conducted in conformity with established laws, policies, procedures and rules of conduct.   This is a normal course of action in which staff, regardless of their designation, are subject to investigations based on reports of irregularities.
The letter writer, whose real identity has since been uncovered by the Kaieteur News, sought to bring disrepute into the manner in which investigations are conducted by insinuating that the Officers, who were suspended, were unfairly treated.  Further, the writer gives the impression that Customs Officers are treated differently from other GRA staffers.  This is far from the truth and such actions will never be condoned.
Despite uncovering the true identity of the letter writer, Kaieteur News has not published or disclosed the identity of the author of the letter and that does not seem to be a responsible position. The Guyana Revenue Authority has a zero tolerance position on fraud.  Any staff found guilty of same will be dealt with accordingly.
Khurshid Sattaur

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