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GRA to seek criminal prosecution for all employees involved in bribery -Statia
By Kiana Wilburg
The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) is dedicated to continuously strengthening its anti-corruption stance. One of the ways it intends to do this, is by seeking criminal prosecution against any employee who is found in acts of bribery or other forms of serious misconduct.
This was recently noted by GRA’s Commissioner General, Godfrey Statia.
The tax chief said, “GRA is committed to continuously strengthening its anti-corruption programme and has outlined specific measures as part of its strategic plan. These measures include adopting an anti-corruption strategy designed to place emphasis on addressing specific risks in the organization.”
The Chartered Accountant added, “Secondly, continued emphasis will be placed on conducting investigations of an employee’s misconduct and ensuring appropriate disciplinary actions are taken. Those actions include seeking criminal prosecution for serious criminal misconduct such as bribery.”
The Commissioner General had also said that the Special Investigative Unit of the Guyana Revenue Authority is part of the entity’s plan to fight internal acts of corruption or collusion that may lead to billions of dollars in revenue leakages.
The Commissioner General asserted that among the duties of the Unit will be the vetting of shortlisted applicants prior to their employment with the revenue authority.
In a previous interview with Kaieteur News, Statia had also explained that such a department is absolutely necessary for the Authority, as it seeks to restore the confidence of the public in the entity as well as improve its day to day operations.
Statia had said, too, that he is interested in accountability and transparency, and it is in this light that he will be seeking to not only catch those taxpayers trying to cheat the system but even those officials within GRA who may be working along with them.
GRA’s Commissioner General, Godfrey Statia
“We need a proper internal affairs department that properly investigates our staff, to see who is living above their means and what is actually taking place. I have been in discussions with former police officers and I have been able to get the former Crime Chief Mr. Henry Chester. He heads that team.”
Speaking to the importance of such a department, Statia reminded of some of the damning discoveries he made when he took over as Commissioner General.
He had cited the fact that there were corrupt practices involving certain GRA staff in the Customs department, which has resulted in tremendous revenue leakages. The tax boss noted that the Customs Department was one area which was fraught with various corrupt acts and schemes.
“When I got there, I did a few sets of analyses and I found that in the area of customs, there were lots of misclassification of imports. Based on the codes, you know that they misclassified a lot of items, and this was so that (importers) either get zero rates or lower rates,” Statia disclosed.
He had said that he found that the misclassification of imports was due to two reasons; ignorance or collusion.
With respect to collusion, Statia found that there were instances where some officers were placed at the wharves just to collect benefits for their superiors.
“What we have also found, is that some of the supervisors and some of the heads and wharf managers… they have their people, whether or not you like it. People were transferred to wharves strictly to collect (benefits) for their managers and their heads. I know the entire trick…”
To address the issue of collusion, the Commissioner-General said that he had to put in place a system of staff rotation.
“What that approach does, is it enables you to move people around so that by doing so, those who take over from them have the opportunity of checking to see the work that was done before,” Statia had said.
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