The GRA and the philosophically dead leadership of APNU+AFC

Jun 23, 2019 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Both Forbes Burnham and Walter Rodney, one day not far from this date, will climb out of their resting places with implacable rage. Burnham will confront David Granger and say to him; “Do not continue to promote my legacy; you don’t understand a damn thing about how I approached economics when I ruled.”
Rodney will point his finger at Clive Thomas and Rupert Roopnaraine and intone; “You two have betrayed the post-colonial revolution that I paid the ultimate price for Guyana to have.”
From tomorrow, the Guyana Revenue Authority will have a one week auction of vehicles left on the wharves for what the GRA refers to as “Want of Entry.” What that means is that the vehicles came in, sat on the wharves, no papers were processed, the rent for occupation wasn’t paid, and so after a period of time, the importers were in legal default so the GRA auctions off the stuff.
This is Guyana, so brace yourself for morbid corruption. I was there before at this auction thing, and what I saw convinced me that the GRA and the rest of the State, under the PPP and now under APNU+AFC, are dancing to the stuck song of corruption.
In September 2017, I read where GRA was having an action for ‘Want of Entry’. I needed a cheap, good car and here was the opportunity. I jumped so high with joy that I got stuck while coming down. Then I crashed down to earth and almost died. All of the good cars that I saw, as I approached them, I was told, “No, that is not on sale.”
It was a lie. Those cars were on sale, but they were carved out through a corrupt system where certain business entities, certain used car dealers, certain business folks and certain moneyed people already had them covered, because money talks. For my experience at that auction, see my column of Wednesday, September 6, 2017 captioned, “Lands and Surveys, GRA and my unchanging country.”
For the 2019 auction, here is what the GRA has stipulated. In your bid, your amount must include the duty the vehicle carries, the accumulated rent for the time it was on the wharf, other related expenses, plus your payment for the car itself. But this is unconscionable, because you are buying a car that may end up being a junk. Remember, the vehicle was sitting on the wharf for years.
There is no scientific way, a mechanic can look at the engine and other vital parts at the time you make your bid and pronounce them as fit and proper. You have to put the car in functional mode then you will see if is fit and proper or unfit and improper. I took a mechanic to examine a second hand car for my daughter. He gave it a clean sheet, but when she put it on the roadways, the faults showed up.
The GRA head, Godfrey Statia let his Freudian mind slip when he said in relation to seized liquor and vehicles the GRA sold to certain people, that the GRA doesn’t check on the buyer and for the sake of confidentiality, GRA cannot disclose names. The GRA will never reveal who these buyers are for obvious reasons. Those vehicles on display today are all sold. Statia doesn’t make policy for the government, so he cannot shape the auction. That is left to the Cabinet.
Why sell these vehicles in a manner that allows the purchase to be manipulated? Why not use the sale as a concession to those in the lower income brackets. On the bid form, the bidder should state his/her place of employment, type of salary, family status and other related facts. For example, how long he/she has worked for the State. What is his/her pension earning? These are things that can easily be verified.
For example, you can check to see if a corporal in the police force has been in the service the past twenty years. Such a person should be given preferential access to those ‘Want of Entry’ stuff than moneyed people with formidable contacts with the upper tiers of the GRA.
I am not going to the 2019 GRA vehicle auction. It is a waste of time. There will be no reasonably priced vehicle on offer. You may end up paying ‘nuff’ money for a car that may breakdown on the Timehri road at an uncivilised hour. I swear on my parents’ graves that happened to me.
By the end of the week, money will talk and money will buy off the auction. Burnham is dead. Jagan is dead. Rodney is dead and I am not feeling too well myself.

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