Three senior officers sent home as GRA continues corruption housecleaning

Aug 16, 2017 News

It appears that the new management and Board of Directors of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) are in no mood for corruption.

Following the recent sacking of a top level official of the Law Enforcement and Investigation Division (LEID), for allegedly being involved in the shaking down of a Berbice businessman, three more persons were this week sent home pending investigations.

Yesterday, GRA’s Commissioner-General Godfrey Statia reportedly travelled to Berbice to make surprise inspections at operations there, with the aim of strengthening systems.

Berbice is said to be a hot-bed of corruption, with open borders with Suriname allowing rampant smuggling.

This administration had, on taking office in 2015, disbanded the Berbice Anti-Smuggling Squad (BASS). The squad had been established to raise revenues in especially the Springlands and Crabwood Creek areas.

However, GRA said an analysis of figures found that BASS was failing big time.

Revenues in Berbice have risen since, but there have been continued reports of Customs officials collecting bribes.

In one recent case, one official sent a GRA driver last in the night to the home of a Berbice businessman. The angry businessman complained.

The senior LEID official was sent home and then sacked, following an internal investigation.

The three men sent home this week include one who was in charge of regional operations, while another was a group leader. They are being sent home to enable the facilitation of investigations into corrupt practices. The investigations will centre on the facilitation of smuggling by GRA staffers.

Sources said that some GRA officers were targeting several importers and businesses, allowing a system where values were changed and even the actual description of the items. In the end, the state lost millions of dollars in taxes monthly.

Way back in 2016, another corruption scandal hit GRA where a senior officer collided with his staffers to have goods released without the payment of taxes.

In return, he reportedly would collect kickbacks. Like that officer, in the past, quite a number of cases were swept under the carpet.

Statia, who was hired from overseas last year, had vowed to step down if he failed to meet a number of targets. He had also vowed to clean up GRA of corruption.

GRA is the country’s biggest revenue collection agency for Government.