THE Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) will soon add a number of industrial scanners to its assets as Cabinet has granted its no-objection to the award of $34, 200,000 to Massy Technologies Limited for the supply of same.
Cabinet Secretary Joseph Harmon told reporters on Friday that the provision of the industrial scanners will assist in the scanning of containers that enter the country on a daily basis.
The scanners, which will be placed at the various wharves will aid in curbing the illicit transporting of drugs.

Guyana, Harmon said, has become known as a trans-shipment point and that image of the country must change. He explained that the $34M is part of a wider process of scanning containers that enter and leave the country.
“Because of the absence of a scanner, you find that goods and services and sometimes equipment, sometimes products that are not produced in Guyana but pass through Guyana end up in other ports.”
He added: “We really have to put a stop to that,” noting that every time there is a major drug bust in containers, it is done in another country, but would have passed through Guyana.

“We have to really take very serious steps to address our country’s image as a drug trans-shipment point. We have to work assiduously to correct that; this is part of that process of providing that facility to the GRA to help it with its work,” the Minister of State added.
Asked about the US$4.3 M container scanner that the GRA had commissioned in 2014 that had encountered some challenges over the years, Harmon said the scanner can function, but a “home” is yet to be found to house it.
He explained that there was an issue with the facility used to house the equipment, and as a result, the scanner has not been in use.
“Some time ago there was the use of the National Park and that proved to be a disaster in itself, because the tarmac was damaged in a very serious way and so that the use of the scanner in very many cases has been curtailed because of the absence of what you call a “home” for the scanner; this is something we are working on right now to be able to provide that facility,” he added.

The Auditor General’s report of 2015 on the Public Accounts had said that the GRA did not have a functioning container scanner as one was no longer usable, while the other had malfunctioned while it needed a fixed location.
In that report, the Auditor General said that in May, 2010, the GRA had purchased an electronic container scanner at a cost of US$1M for the purpose of 100 per cent container scanning.
That scanner became operational one year later, but was deemed inoperable in October 2014 due to loss of power to the electrical cabinet.
In 2013, another scanner was procured and that scanner became operational in January 2014; however, it became inoperable some 30 months after in June 2016.
That scanner was funded by the Government of China.