Latest update January 29th, 2025 10:24 PM
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GRA’S IMAGE
Some recent developments in the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) have led many to question the credibility of the agency.Its new Commissioner General (CG) had promised to rid the agency of corrupt practices and rebuild its tarnished image. 
The CG had asked his staff to be the best they can be so that the GRA could become the best version of itself as the country’s principal tax collection agency. He declared that there would be no more sacred cows and that the tax-dragnet network would be considerably widened to reign in the tax cheaters and end corruption and bribery within the agency.
After more than a year as the new CG, it seems that corruption and bribery continue to plague the GRA. There appears to be a slight improvement to the decades-old corrupt practices and lawlessness which have afflicted the agency, thus causing it to sully its good name.
The recent firing of a senior official at the GRA for allegedly being accused of taking bribes from a Berbice businessman and the interdiction of three mid-level officials pending investigations show that the CG is serious about stamping out corruption at the agency.
However, corruption has become endemic at the GRA and the public believes that it will take more than the firings of a few individuals to end it. This has been the view of a senior GRA official who said that there are several senior officials at the GRA who are taking bribes but they are deemed the untouchables.
Except for making public statements which are being ignored, there is not much else the CG can do to these individuals. Some of his most recent statements include:GRA tightens noose on Governmentt concessions, defaulters to pay up; Three senior officers sent home as GRA continues corruption house cleaning; Serious crackdown on misuse of concessions underway; GRA boss alleged breaches on duty free concessions; GRA demands businessman pay $212M in duties, taxes;GRA zeros in on blatant abuses of tax incentive regime by companies;GRA strengthens systems to expose tax dodging companies; GRA’s crackdown on corruption; Weak collection enforcement, other loopholes at GRA that cause major revenue leak are to be plugged.
While it appears that the CG in no mood to tolerate corruption, there are reports that corruption remains rampant within the agency, which suggests that the firings of a few individuals and making public statements have not put a dent in corruption at the GRA. Corruption has become a culture at the agency and has to be cut from its roots, which means that the CG would have to clean house by firing those senior officials who are found culpable of corrupt practices.
But in relation to the senior officials, it appears that the CG hands are tied because of their strong political ties. As a case in point, about three months ago, the police had interdicted the driver of a new SUV with false license plates, but the officers were instructed by a senior GRA official not to arrest the driver or impound the vehicle, whose owner it was alleged is a prominent businessman.
Another case involved a senior GRA officer, who was denied duty free concessions to import a vehicle with an oversized engine by the Department of Public Service last November, yet he imported the vehicle and like the other official, he has not been reprimanded or fired.
These cases expose the irresponsibility of these two senior officials who took an oath to respect and uphold the laws of the GRA, but are themselves violating those laws.
Their actions could further damage the already poor image of the GRA and cause it to lose credibility. That aside, the CG seems to be taking steps to close the tax and the duty free concessions loopholes, but it would require will power on his part which he must exercise at all times irrespective of who is involved in corruption.
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