100 staffers gone: Zero tolerance at GRA for corruption

Jan 26, 2018 News

It is confirmed. The axe at the government’s main revenue collection agency has not only been falling on delinquent businesses, but also big time on corrupt staffers.
Following a story broken by Kaieteur News a few weeks ago, Godfrey Statia, Commissioner-General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), yesterday confirmed that the number of staffers dismissed or terminated in the last year or so is numbering about 100.
From collusion with businesses to staying away from work, GRA has been tightening up on the complaints involving staffers.
The disclosures were made yesterday by Statia and senior GRA officials during a press conference to speak about the entity’s 2017 performance and plans for this year.
The top official was convinced that significant changes have been made at GRA to raise the morale of staffers, including one-third of the positions of the 1,200 employees rectified.
A number of staffers have been promoted and soon GRA will introduce a stringent staff appraisal process which will recompense staffers for their work. Recompensation, Statia stressed, will not be automatic.
He said that there have been significant successes which would be lots to shout about.
Questioned about a Wharf Manager, who with her team, was removed from a city wharf last year, the Commissioner-General said that investigations were carried out, with the Manager being cleared.
It is standard procedure that staffers are removed from an area when an investigation is underway.
GRA officials descended on the city wharf after learning of a racket involving the recycling of export documents at the Ministry of Business, involving scrap metal containers.
According to Statia, corruption and collusion with staffers is nothing new and alive and well in not only GRA but at other places in Guyana.
GRA has been rotating staffers and even getting rid of the “miscreants”.
While a number of staffers are currently being investigated by the police, it is much easier to charge taxpayers than staffers, the official admitted.
Rather, GRA, a semi-autonomous body, has been going the route of dismissing dirty staffers.

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