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GRA slaps Ogle Airport Inc with $30M tax from ‘not for profit’ flight school
Chairman of Ogle Airport Inc.
Michael Correia
Ogle Airport Inc has bought shares in an engineering school that was previously sanctioned by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) as a tax evading body.
The Art Williams and Harry Wendt Aeronautical Engineering School was originally established as a “not for profit” organization owned by the Aircraft Owners Association of Guyana (AOAG).
At that time Michael Correia, the Chairman of Ogle Airport Inc, was the association’s president.
Despite being established 25 years ago, the school was only registered in 2010.
Its certificate of registration dated 24th February, 2010 listed its sole director as Anthony Mekdeci, who is also a director of Ogle Airport Inc and the CEO of the Eugene F. Correia International Airport.
The address of the AOAG is listed as Caribbean Aviation Maintenance Services (CAMS), a company owned by the Correia family.
The school, whilst operating as a ”not for profit,” was contracted by Ogle Airport Inc. to provide mandatory training to the staff of all the aircraft operators at the airport.
The aircraft operators were also required to make payment for the training to Ogle Airport Inc. instead of the AOAG that supposedly owned the school.
This suggested that the school was registered as a not for profit in order for it to avoid the financial compliance and having to submit audited financials. An incorporated company would have had to submit its yearly financials.
Kaieteur News understands that a past chairman of the school had discovered that mechanical tools for the students were being sourced from staff when it would have been much more affordable to do so from hardware stores.
There were cases of unjustified sole sourcing of services. He brought these concerns to the attention of the relevant administration and instead of the concerns being addressed and corrected he was terminated by email on Friday, 4th April, 2014.
Subsequently, the Guyana Revenue Authority became aware of the tax avoidance that was taking place and an audit on the school as a business entity was conducted.
This audit established that a large amount of unpaid taxes was outstanding. Kaieteur News understands that GRA instructed the school to pay over $30M in back taxes.
When GRA made its pronouncements, a strategic planning retreat of the AOAG was held on the 4th December, 2014 in the boardroom of CAMS.
Item three on the agenda was listed as incorporation of the school as a business entity.
The association President, still Michael Correia, then invited and accepted subscriptions for a new company in the name of Art Williams & Harry Wendt Aeronautical Engineering School Inc. which was registered on the 16th April, 2016 in the names of Michael Correia, Anthony Mekdeci and Malcolm Chan A. Sue.
Correia, Mekdeci and Chan-A-Sue then invited OAI to subscribe for shares in this entity, which OAI took up allegedly without the permission of its board.
Kaieteur News is in possession of a letter from Correia that chronicles the series of events. The letter was sent to persons whom Correia wanted to buy shares in the school.
He told this group that the money from the sale of the school would have been used to pay off the owed taxes.
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