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NATURAL JUSTICE

Jan 24, 2016 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

It is not outlawed for the Commissioner-General of the Guyana Revenue Authority to share taxpayers’ information with foreign embassies. It is not outlawed for the holder of that office to also share information of commercial transactions, be it the acquisition of assets or the importation of items by a non-taxpayer.
It is unlawful and unethical for the sharing of information with unauthorized parties. The law is silent on who constitutes unauthorized parties, but by convention, the relationship between the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) is akin to a business-client relationship.
It is not unlawful for taxpayers’ information to be given by the GRA to the courts. The police, in the course of investigating revenue crimes, may be given information to facilitate their investigations. The government of Guyana has double-taxation agreements with foreign governments. These agreements are treaties and may require the exchange of taxpayers’ and commercial information.
The government of Guyana also has agreements on the exchange of information with other foreign governments. One such agreement exists with the government of the Republic of Suriname. The mere exchange of information with an outside party by the Commissioner-General is therefore not always unlawful. It depends on the information exchanged and the lawful basis on which that information is received.
The Commissioner-General cannot be arbitrarily dismissed. The holder of that office cannot further be dismissed for exchange of any information without an investigation. All public officers are required, by virtue of the principles of natural justice, to be accorded a hearing during the course of any investigation. They are also required to be granted the right to respond to any adverse findings. These are the fundamental principles of natural justice which should be followed before any one is dismissed for misconduct or fraud.  Everyone is entitled to protection of the principles of natural justice.
In the instance of the termination of the services of the Commissioner-General of the Guyana Revenue Authority, the Board, upon receipt of information of an alleged wrongdoing, has to determine whether a prima facie case exists to warrant an investigation. It has to put the allegations to the accused and gain a response before any investigation is launched.  The Board of Directors of the Guyana Revenue Authority has to afford the Commissioner-General the opportunity to explain.
In determining whether to launch an investigation, the Board has to convince itself that the person whose information was allegedly divulged was entitled to the protection of confidentiality. If the person is not a taxpayer, then taxpayers’ information cannot clearly be divulged about that person, but commercial information may be released.
Once the Board is satisfied that a prima facie case exists it may launch an investigation. The Guyana Revenue Authority is not a part of the public service. Like NICIL, it is a corporate body. Public service rules prohibit the investigation of someone by a person of insubordinate rank.
The Commissioner-General was entitled to be afforded an investigation of the charges made against him. He was also entitled to be investigated by someone of superior ranking. The Board cannot investigate a staffer of the GRA. It cannot be judge and then jury, since it is the Board which is authorized to dismiss staffers of a certain rank.
The Board, therefore, would have been required to appoint someone of a superior rank to investigate the charges against Sattaur. Were these things done? If they were not done, then how different is the new government from the PPP?
People expect things to be different under the APNU+AFC. They do not expect the new administration to conform to the same practices that were done under the PPP. It needs to be determined, therefore, before any judgment is passed on the new administration, whether the principles of natural justice were accorded to the outgoing Commissioner-General.

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