REFERENCE is hereby made to the letter captioned ‘Key positions within Customs were given to selective ‘saints and elites’, which appeared in the Monday, July 16, 2012 edition of the Kaieteur News, and purportedly written by a ‘Disgusted Worker’.
This letter accused the management of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) of among other things, making appointments on the basis of favouritism, gross mismanagement, and claimed that specific divisions are incompetent.
The letter which was clearly aimed at undermining the agency, also raised the issue of Customs
Officers not receiving in a timely manner, payments for overtime work.

In response to the accusations levelled against the agency, the GRA wishes to publicly state the following:

1. Management’s function is to ensure that the vision and mission of the agency is achieved efficiently and effectively; that should not be confused with being subservient.

2. Appointments to senior positions within the agency are decided upon by the Governing Board; as such, these appointments cannot be manipulated by any staff of the agency.  Further, these positions are filled through competition.

3. There are established guidelines regarding the payment of overtime. These guidelines require that all claims for overtime be verified before payments are made. The verification aspect of same is dependent on the number of claims made: as such, there are instances when the payment of overtime is delayed.  Additionally, Section 173 – 177 of the Customs Regulations deal with the overtime requests from merchants.  The fees collected are paid into the Consolidated Fund, and subsequent procedure for payment follow the financial regulations set out by policies.

The management of GRA was forced to put stringent measures in place to monitor merchant overtime after investigations proved that officers were claiming payment for hours they never worked; many of them were suspended.  The letter writer who purports to be a GRA officer is obviously not aware of these facts or wants management to turn a blind eye to fraudulent activities.

4. The accusations levelled at specific divisions and training issues raised are obvious indicators of someone who bears a grudge. Selections for overseas training are based on the requirements/criteria stipulated by funding agencies and are for persons within all three operational areas of the GRA.

The letter writer has however, neglected to mention that the management of the GRA is constantly battling against elements who are geared at damaging the image of the agency and who are bent on corrupt practices.  It is often when internal investigations are close to unveiling sinister acts or when the agency is being restructured to ensure transparency that we find such letters being penned.

Despite the attempt to cast doubt on the agency, the management of the Guyana Revenue Authority will continue its thrust to make the organisation one that is in keeping with its mandate of promoting compliance while maintaining its integrity.