WITH reference to an article published in the Thursday January 13, 2011 edition of the Kaieteur Newspaper, titled ‘GRA vehicle wrecks Lethem taxi’, the Guyana Revenue Authority said it is appalled at the way in which the Kaieteur News has once again chosen to besmirch the reputation of the Commissioner-General, Mr. Khurshid Sattaur and the image of the organization.

In a statement, the GRA said what is even more distasteful is the ‘Dem boys seh’ column of the said newspaper captioned ‘Cowshit gun wine pun something pointed’.

“This is a shameful, despicable abuse of press freedom, which the Guyana Press Association should deplore. Such public display of derision for a person, regardless of their office should not be tolerated,” the GRA stated.

It said this kind of “gutter press” not only shows a lack of respect for the Commissioner-General or his office, but it also shows that the author lacks self-respect.

“The Kaieteur News is now reduced to making money off of the plight of unsuspecting individuals,and character assassination. Not so long ago, this said paper through Mr. Adam Harris, and at the expense of an officer’s reputation, tried to test the patience of senior (GRA) officials. When the officer objected to having fabricated statements attributed to her, the officer reported that Mr. Harris said, ‘I just want to see the expression of Mr. Sealey and Mr. Sattaur’,” the GRA said.

The organization said it abhors such abuse of the journalist profession.

It noted that recently in Region Nine, more specifically the Lethem area, a vehicle belonging to the GRA was involved in an accident with the vehicle of taxicab driver, Desmond Adams.

“Again, the paper saw this as an opportunity to attack the Commissioner-General. This incident is a police matter that is currently being treated as a traffic offence and, as with all such matters, the Revenue Authority like Mr. Adams, would have to await the report of the investigations of the police before further steps can be taken to have the matter dealt with.”

However, the GRA said it should be noted that whilst the police are doing their job, the Authority has been conducting its own internal investigations, and discussions are ongoing as to possible solutions regarding this unfortunate incident.

Further to that article, GRA said the newspaper chose to propagate a personal and disgraceful attack on the Commissioner-General that can only be described as sordid, through the means of its satirical column “Dem boys seh”.
“This is not humorous, but rather facetious, derogatory and mischievous,” the GRA declared.
The VAT is not Mr. Sattaur’s to do as he pleases, nor is he the one that wrecked the man’s car. Such wanton attack on the Commissioner-General’s reputation is deplorable.

The GRA is calling on all decent minded citizens to decry such lawless misuse of press freedom. This issue is currently engaging legal attention and action will subsequently be taken.