COMMISSIONER-General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Khurshid Sattaur, has been sent on 200 days’ leave to facilitate a full-fledged audit of the GRA.Acting Deputy Commissioner-General Ms. Ingrid Griffith will act in the position during the period Sattaur is on leave.

According to a statement issued by the GRA yesterday, the governing board of directors yesterday took a unanimous decision to send Sattaur on vacation leave with immediate effect to facilitate an upcoming comprehensive forensic audit of the agency by a reputable international firm.

Sattaur, who has been Commissioner-General for the past 12 years, has accumulated vacation leave of more than 200 days, and has been ordered to proceed immediately on leave while the authorities arrange the audit of the GHRA.

Back in July, Minister of State Joseph Harmon had told the media that government could not say if Sattaur’s services would be retained, but that the results of a forensic audit done on the GRA would determine that.

Pointedly asked whether the administration had confidence in Sattaur, and whether it would retain his services, Harmon had, back then, responded: “This administration will not preempt what is likely to come out in the audit. If, at the end of it, the audit points us in a certain direction, then certainly that is the direction which we will go. But I will not pre-empt any finding,” the minister had said.

He’d also said, “We have to be very careful how we are dealing with certain things.” As he had explained, given that the GRA is the major revenue-earning agency in this country, the government cannot “treat lightly with the structure or administration of such an entity, until you are very sure about what you want to do.”

“I will not disclose a preference for anyone or any particular officer, but what I can say to you is that, once we are satisfied that there is a lack of competence; that the integrity is gone; that there is corruption; and that there is no confidence, then I think (that) putting all of it together, we will make a decision on these matters. But I am not going to say to you that we have no confidence in Sattaur… at the appropriate time, when that decision needs to be made, it will be; and we will make it known to the public,” the minister said.