The GRA may be in violation of this particular law

Jun 22, 2017 Letters

Dear Editor,
The 2015 Auditor General’s Report highlighted the continual violation of the Fiscal Management and Accountability Act, 2003 (FMA) by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA). The GRA is in the habit of pointing fingers at all and sundry, especially members of the private sector regarding their alleged violations of the law, but when it comes to their own internal transgressions, they make a determined effort to spin the truth. On Page 47 of the 2015 Auditor General’s Report, it reveals that the last GRA Report laid in Parliament was the 2014 Report. I enquired and found that the 2015 Report is still to be laid in Parliament. This is a total violation of the law which clearly state in Article 74 of the FMA that nine (9) months after the closure of the year, the financial statement of all of these entities should be presented to Parliament. So where is the GRA’s Annual Report for 2015?
These acts of the GRA of trying to paint their own grave white in order to make it look good compared to others, is a dangerous precedent because the GRA continues to fail to acknowledge that it has lots of skeletons inside their own grave; exposing the hypocrisy of the leadership of this agency. Organizations like the Ministry of Finance, Bank of Guyana and the GRA ought to be the gold standard on public financial behaviour.
To the credit of the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Guyana, they have published their financial statement for 2016 and continue to meet their statutory publication of data. The GRA on the other hand is still to publish their 2015 and 2016 financial statements. This state of affairs exposes the lack of focus on accountability at the highest levels in the GRA and Mr. Statia has to be held accountable for this transgression.
I am calling upon the Minister to read the riot act on the leadership in the GRA so that they can make right by the people. Further civil society, especially the Private Sector Commission, should raise this as an agenda item for their next meeting with the Minister. Based on the information coming out of GRA of late, there seems to be a lot of financial skullduggery in that agency.
Sase Singh

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