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Guyana not short of laws, but short on enforcement – GRA’s Deputy Commissioner
Deputy Commissioner General, Customs, Excise and Trade Administration, GRA, Lancelot Wills
Deputy Commissioner General, Customs, Excise and Trade Administration, Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Lancelot Wills, has identified the lack of enforcement in the anti-corruption fight as a challenge.
Wills was at the time speaking at the opening ceremony of the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA)’s Anti-Corruption training seminar held yesterday with the staff of key government agencies, including the GRA.
“It is not for the paucity of laws that we fail so miserable on the various metric and scales of corruption; it’s for the lack of enforcement. Guyana traditionally is known for having a very mature core of intellectual scope and intellectuals.
“We are never short of laws; we are short on its implementation and enforcement,” Wills told participants.
He cited the Integrity Commission Act of 1997, which sets out the methods of identifying corruption and punishment. According to Wills, Guyana has a dilemma where corrupt practices are perceived to be normal behaviour
Attendees at the SARA training.
because it is accepted by society at large.
While not casting aspersions, Wills told the gathering that fish rot from the head.
He said what is required is for every Guyanese to adopt an anti-corruptive posture.
“We think that the target of corruption is public officials. That is not the case colleagues. Corruption is everybody’s business because it takes away from the resource base of the state which invests in its citizens by way of education, improvement of infrastructure and utilities,” Wills noted.
He stated that Guyana is obligated to fight corruption under several international conventions. Deputy-Director, State Assets Recovery Agency, Aubrey Heath-Retemyer said the international community has adopted a stern posture towards corruption, therefore it is imperative that this country follows suit.
“It is much easier to close the door on corruption than going after stolen wealth. We are in the process of doing that. It is costing us a lot of money and a lot of time,” Heath-Retemyer added.
Over the years, Guyana adopted a pervasive attitude towards corruption, which stifled development in a number of sectors, he pointed out,
“Between the years 2010 and 2014, Heath-Retemyer said that some $35 Billion was lost as a result of procurement fraud, while an overwhelming $100 billion was diverted to the “underground economy.”
“Without that oil coming off the shores of Guyana, what we have now, what we been experiencing for years, we could make this a far better country than what it is,” he stated.
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