My children were not given any special or peculiar treatment in terms of position, salary or status

Jul 21, 2014 Letters

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Dear Editor,
Permit space in your newspaper to respond to your front page article entitled “Family Affair exists at GRA…Sattaur employs two sons, daughter, nephew niece” published in your July 20th, 2014 edition.
At first reading of this article, I was most appalled at the level you would go to expose my children’s personal details in the public domain, in today’s high crime wave that exists in our beleaguered society, for it is easy work to establish that they are on an annual basis millionaires many times over.
I felt very much saddened too over the fact that the information could have emanated from one of my perhaps trusted employees at the GRA, not for a moment wanting to believe that it’s tit for tat.
GRA has a policy of seriously reprimanding such persons for exposing private and confidential information.
It should be noted that the GRA has a professional mechanism to investigate and address these unauthorized disclosures.
The public should note with consternation, the possibility of disclosure of their confidential information by such an individual and as such the GRA will be compelled to act to protect the interest of the public.
For the benefit of Mr. Harmon I would like to point out that my children were not in any way given any special or peculiar treatment, not in terms of position, salary or status.
Both of my sons referred to in the article have worked in junior level positions for several years before being promoted to their current positions, not unlike all other employees of the GRA and perhaps to their detriment.
They are not paid any special salary, as all persons in similar positions are paid exactly the same. They were subjected to competitive interviews before being employed and are eminently qualified for the positions for which they were employed and currently hold. These interviews are conducted by an independent panel and given a score rating based on numerous criteria, including education/qualifications, experience, communication skills etc.
Appointments to the positions they now hold have to be sanctioned and approved by the Governing Board of the Guyana Revenue Authority and are not appointments that can be made by me unilaterally or at all.
Furthermore, these promotions have to be recommended by the functional heads of their respective departments, persons who are professionals and highly competent in their respective fields.
It should be noted the GRA and indeed Guyana has found it difficult to attract and retain these skills, and despite having other opportunities, my children were encouraged to stay and serve their country.
For the benefit of Mr. Harmon, I should indicate that Imran is one of a few Chatered Certified Accountants the GRA has been able to attract and is the only ACCA qualified that holds such a junior management position at the GRA.
Riyad has been employed with the GRA for in excess of six years and is adequately qualified and experienced for the position he now holds.
Notwithstanding being adequately qualified, he continues to upgrade his qualifications by pursuing further studies in his field. By this point it should become apparent and evident that there has been no conflict of interest, no peculiar treatment offered to my children or any impropriety as insinuated by the article.
Despite the foregoing, further care was taken to ensure there is no conflict or apparent conflict existed. Special care was exercised to ensure that none of them reports to my office, that I am not their supervisory officer, I am in no way involved in reviewing their work output, I am not in a position to review their work, I do not evaluate their work or performance nor do I direct their workflow or assignments. Additionally, there is no conflict of interest, since I am a salaried employee whose only fiduciary or pecuniary interest is in my salary. Similarly, my children referred to in the article are salaried employees, employed in positions for which they are adequately or overqualified and earn salaries that are consistent with that earned by other persons at the same or similar level.
Therefore the suggestions and insinuations by Mr. Harmon as expressed in the article are not only baseless, unfounded and spurious but are offending to and calls into question the integrity and professionalism of not only myself, but the senior functional heads of the GRA, the members of the Governing Board and my children.
Mr. Harmon obviously has his work to do and if he chooses to gain political mileage at the expense of exposing my children’s life to danger, then I can only be consoled by the thought that if anything detrimental befalls my children, and may God forbid, Mr. Harmon a lawyer, (and here I would not want to reveal anything I know of this honourable person’s worth but I would imagine like the rest of the fraternity of the legal profession),  can pay any damages the court will be asked to award.
I would however want to assure Mr Harmon that I Do Not Intend to publish alongside any advertisement placed in the media in the future, that the children and relatives of Mr. Sattaur should not apply. They are all protected by the Constitution of this country that allows for equal treatment under the law and equal opportunities for employment. I would however hope that the article catches the attention of the heads of the international organisations in Guyana such as Caricom and the European Union, IADB etc., so that my children can be quickly absorbed in their employ as I would rather suspect that were they to seek employment in the Private Sector, you would hear even more vociferous calls of conflict of interest. I collect the revenues from the Private Sector and pay theses revenues into the public treasury, so in principle, according to Mr. Harmon’s argument, they must not benefit from such monies. Would it not represent a conflict of interest if my children were to be employed by private businesses who are required to pay taxes to the GRA, or have to be audited by the GRA, or they establish private tax consultancy services that represent taxpayers against the GRA. By this reasoning, my children should not be permitted to work! So in the interest of landing my children well paid jobs in these international organizations, let me inform the public that my son in the Audit Department of GRA has the ACCA, like his father does and will presently complete a Masters in Business Administration and my other son in the Information Technology Department of GRA, holds a degree from a prestigious university in India.
I trust that his satisfies Mr. Harmon.
Khurshid Sattaur
Commissioner -General

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