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GRA’s staff falling sick due to mouldy conditions at Camp Street HQ
Kaieteur News – Employees of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) are concerned that the mouldy conditions within the entity’s Camp Street headquarters. This they say has resulted in many staff members experiencing respiratory illnesses among other health issues.
According to employees of the revenue body, for years they have complained to management about the situation and their complaints have been ignored on multiple occasions. “We have made several reports at the human resource department. We have persons who have breathing problems, some have sinus issues, skin rashes and many other illnesses,” a staff member told the Kaieteur News earlier this week. Attempts to obtain a comment from GRA’s management on the issue this week have unsuccessful.
Reports are that a senior staff member of the GRA was forced to seek treatment overseas for a respiratory ailment, which was attributed to the conditions at her work place. A staff member told this publication that at multiple meetings, she and her colleagues informed the entity’s management about their individual ailments which they attributed to the mould trapped within the walls of the five storied-building.
The Guyana Revenue Authority headquarters on Camp Street.
On some occasions, promises were made to address the situation, however, she said a permanent solution appear distant. “It hampers productivity,” another staff member noted. The mould, which exists in various sections of the building including ceilings, walls and along the building’s stairways, has been attributed to leakages from the air condition units within the edifice.
In addition, when it rains, water would leak through the building and accumulate along the stairs. GRA employees told this publication that water usually leaks through the ceiling panels at the building and they often replaced whenever leakages occur. However, in recent times, the entity’s maintenance staff reported that there are issues with sourcing the correct panels to replace the damaged pieces.
It was noted too that more than more than 400 employees of the revenue body work within the building each week. In 2015, the mouldy conditions at the facility were highlighted in the media and at the time, the GRA board explored a long-term solution to remedy the leakages at the building. Subsequently, a roofing structure was built over the roof of the building. However, while this solved the issue temporarily, the leakages continued.
The building which houses the headquarters of the GRA was owned by the defunct Colonial Life Insurance (CLICO) Guyana Inc. The structure has had many structural issues and it was deemed unfit for occupation by Former Finance Minister Winston Jordan in August 2015.
GRA was expected to build a facility to house its new headquarters on state land at Pattenson, Turkeyen, ECD. However, the government subsequently announced that three hotels would be built at the location by a private developer. In June 2022, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo told the media that new headquarters for the GRA would be constructed at Ogle, East Coast Demerara.
This week GRA staff expressed hope that the new project comes on stream soon given the conditions at the Camp Street headquarters.
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