Latest update November 21st, 2024 1:00 AM
GRA to have two operable container scanners by year end
By Abena Rockcliffe-Campbell
Guyana continues to risk a United States maritime export ban with the shipment of containers
GRA Commissioner-General Godfrey Statia
that are destined for that location but are leaving this country without being scanned. However, the Guyana Revenue Authority is moving to plug the hole.
At a recent press conference, GRA Commissioner-General Godfrey Statia said that within a couple of months, “We will be able to regain all our scanning activities for both imports and exports”.
Statia said that efforts are being made to finally find a fixed place for the mobile scanner to operate. He said that the GNIC Wharf is being prepared to host the scanner.
Further, Statia said that the GRA has signed an agreement with China and will get another fixed scanner by the end of the year. So the Authority will have two scanners one mobile and one fixed.
Also, Statia said that the GRA has put all new wharf owners on notice that they must facilitate scanners on site. The Commissioner said that Muneshwers is already moving to put in a scanner at that facility.
Statia said noted that a scanner of that sort will cost no less than US$3M “so we have to work along with the wharf owners, we cannot force all of them to get involved at the same time so it will have to be a cost recovery at some time for people scanning containers inbound and outbound.”
Until the scanners begin operation, Guyana remains susceptible to a ban from the United States leaving by boat for that destination.
A GRA source told Kaieteur News last year, “The US is being lenient with us for now, but if only one major bad shipment of drugs slips through and arrives at a US port they will surely enforce the ban.”
In May 2010, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) administration acquired an electronic container scanner for US$1M for the purpose of 100 percent container scanning.
In his 2015 report, the Auditor General, Deodat Sharma, said that the scanner was placed into operation in May 2011, one year after it was procured. However the multimillion-dollar piece of equipment collapsed and became inoperable by October 2014. Sharma reported that this was due to a loss of power to the electrical cabinet. GRA admitted that the US$1M scanner is unserviceable and repairs are not cost-effective.
Sharma said that another scanner was acquired in November 2013 for US$5.3M and placed into operation on January 4, 2014. This became inoperable on June 18, 2016.
The mobile scanner malfunctioned because of its constant exposure to weather conditions. The scanner was repaired. It is that scanner that GRA will be posting at GNIC.
For almost a year, the scanner was operating from the tarmac of the National Park. The GRA source said that was where the exposure to the weather took effect.
The source added that in addition to the damage caused to the equipment, the foundation of the National Park also became damaged due to the operations there.
“The container trucks and the machine itself damaged the tarmac; remember the radiation from this machine is great.”
“At the moment we are trying to find a location to operate the machine but the machine is working perfectly.”
When the last scanner was commissioned, the then-Minister of Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, said that the piece of equipment was necessary so that Guyana could be compliant with international laws.
Singh said that some of the major trading capitals of the world and nations such as the United States now require universal scanning of incoming containers, “the scanner now enables us to be in compliance with those international obligations.”
In fact, the US was getting ready to ban all maritime shipments from Guyana from arriving at any of its shores. The scanners are supposed to ensure the accuracy of declarations with respect to imports and exports, along with the integrity of trade and enhancement of revenue collection efforts.
While Guyana saved itself then, the risk arrived again after one scanner became inoperable and the other was waiting for a location from which to operate.
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