Commissioner-General of GRA creating a repressive atmosphere

Jun 12, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
In what seems to be very familiar of the days when Sattaur was in charge, now current Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority, Godfrey Statia, is lashing out at his staff for allegedly leaking information about the Wills duty free fiasco to the press. Statia has even gone so far as to admit that he granted the concession to Wills for importing a vehicle that exceeds the 2000cc limit, as well as the 8 year vehicle age limit restriction. Two of the very officers whose duty it is to uphold and enforce the customs’ laws of this country are knowingly breaking the same laws.
How unfair is it to regular citizens that they must abide by the law and buy newer vehicles that are more expensive, but yet here are the ones in charge who are breaking the law and nothing happens to them? All of the excuses given by Statia are worthless; Wills has a GRA vehicle that is assigned to him for field work, and furthermore, it is very uncommon that the head of Customs is out in areas that require 4 wheel drive vehicles, rather he has a large amount of customs officers who are trained to carry out these functions and who he uses regularly to this effect.
Every time Wills uses his vehicle on the roads of Guyana it is an insult to the green initiative that our president is lobbying for, this vehicle is in clear violation of the law. Now we see that what is of actual concern to Statia is not upholding and enforcing the law, but forcing his staff not to use cell phones within the building. Taking it a step further he doesn’t want taxpayers conducting business within the building to use cell phones either.
For a myriad of reasons this seems like madness, but what is more troubling are the lengths that Statia is willing to go to in order to hide instances of bad behaviour within the organisation. All of this is not simply to “protect taxpayers’ information” as he deems it, but rather to stop the staff from sharing information of wrongdoing with the press. During the time of Sattaur, he would have his HR staff send around missives warning staff about speaking to the press with penalties of dismissal if caught, but now Statia carries it a bit further by proposing an all-out ban on cell phones.
Statia is creating a repressive atmosphere within the GRA, one where it is ok to break the law for colleagues, and those at fault are in fact the whistle-blowers. As a citizen who saved for 4 years and abided by the laws and purchased a vehicle that was less than 8 years old, I am calling on the relevant authorities to carry out an investigation into this matter, and to subsequently reprimand both Wills and Statia.
The Commissioner General should not choose when and for whom the laws of Guyana apply to, the law is the law, and in a corruption free society we must be allowed to call out those in charge when they are caught doing wrong. Finally I would like to call for a statement from Transparency Institute Guyana Inc. with regards to Statia’s proposed ban on cell phones. This is a clear warning flag for them and they should have something to say with regards to Statia’s evident attitude against whistle blowing.
Concerned Citizen

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