Latest update April 18th, 2025 8:12 AM
GRA dismisses female staffer for bogus driver’s licence racket
– says charges likely for applicants also
The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) says it has terminated, with immediate effect, the services of a female employee of its Licence Revenue Department, after it was discovered that she fraudulently facilitated the issuance of an undisclosed amount of drivers’ licences.
“The employee responsible for the nefarious acts along with the person(s) who solicited the commission of the various offences are now likely to face criminal charges as the GRA has handed the matter over to the Guyana Police Force for further investigation into the offences owing to their nature,” the agency said in a statement yesterday.
GRA said it carried out a “thorough investigation” after it was revealed that over a period of several months, the staffer facilitated the issuance of a number of fake (new and duplicate) licences to drivers and received cash in return.
The employee, a Clerk 1, reportedly confessed her involvement in the matter which was committed between August 2012 and February 2013, the GRA said.
GRA dismisses female staffer for bogus driver’s licence racket.
“She admitted to receiving sums of money for processing a number of drivers’ licences. The fraudulent acts are a breach of GRA’s Code of Conduct of ‘failure to obey known rules (Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of the GRA) and codes of conduct, conflict of interest and post employment codes’ and ‘intention to defraud or with malice altering or forging the Authority’s documents’.”
GRA said that during the internal investigation it was also revealed that bogus Certificates of Competence Numbers were entered into GRA’s internal system by the employee in committing the fraud.
“A Certificate of Competence issued by the Guyana Police Force is one of the major documents required to be supplied to GRA by the potential driver when applying for a new Driver’s Licence.”
GRA said it is again warning the public to refrain from illegal business activities through the offering of inducement to its officers, since such activities will, at some time or the other, be detected and have serious consequences for the parties involved.
“It must be noted that while efforts continue to be made to ‘root out’ any corruption that may be taking place in any section of GRA’s Departments, taxpayers need to report any form of solicitation of monies by employees in exchange for legitimate duties the employees are paid to carry out. This type of behaviour results in fraud, forgery and other illegalities.”
GRA’s Commissioner General, Khurshid Sattaur, said that he is not prepared for the agency’s integrity to come under scrutiny.
“Rogue officers will be dealt with in a condign manner. The GRA will continue to put systems in place to ensure that integrity and transparency is the hallmark of the agency.”
Recently, the police force transferred a senior traffic rank from the West Demerara area after reports of illegal activities surrounding the handling of applications for driver’s licences.
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