GRA Board recommends demotion and transfer for former AG’s wife

…woman costs entity $845,000 in retainer fees per month

The Guyana Revenue Authority after an assessment of the performance of Deputy Commissioner of Inland Revenue, Legal Services Division (LSD), Hissaun Yasin-Nandlall, has recommended that she be transferred to another operational support area. The conclusion is that there is need for improvement in her performance.

Hissaun Yasin-Nandlall

A document seen by this publication regarding the justifications made for Nandlall’s transfer stated that she should continue in the position of Deputy Commissioner of the LSD, but at the lower level.
The governing body stated that Nandlall’s “achievement of work programme objectives, commitments and results expected, as well as issues relating to consistency, equality of treatment and standardization across GRA, has always been of some concern.”
Nandlall was said to lack sufficient experience in management, tax administration and litigation of tax matters.  “As such, her direction and management of the operations of LSD have not been as effective as required.” Her low success rate in court cases as well as her attendance records in the courts were said to be well below expectations.
GRA, in establishing the LSD, had hired attorneys-at-law with the objective, that all tax cases and issues would be dealt with internally. As Head of the LSD, Nandlall is expected to take the lead in dealing with all GRA cases in the courts with the support of the other Legal Officers.  However, many tax cases were contracted out to several attorneys-at-law in private practice at enormous costs.
Some of the tax cases which were contracted out involved Demerara Distillers Limited – contracted out to Robin Stoby of the Law firm Hughes, Fields and Stoby; and DIDCO, which was contracted out to senior counsel Ashton Chase.
Documents show that an agreement was made and entered into between GRA and Mahendra Satram of the Law firm Satram & Satram, Attorneys at Law, on September 1, 2015. Since April 2014, the services of Satram were used to perform all legal services as needed by GRA, on a monthly retainer.
In this year’s agreement, “GRA believes this revised services agreement will assist the public entity in cost containment of its potential legal costs customarily used by GRA in its day to day activities.” The retainer for a calendar month is $845,000.
The board also commented on the inadequate advice, assistance and support offered by Nandlall to office and field Legal Officers on complex and technical tax issues and cases.
They were reported to have not been reliable since when challenged by professional personnel, these opinions were promptly changed.
Due to unsound and unreliable information given by Nandlall, the board believes that this has aided in insufficient research, preparation, and well formulated and articulated strategies to win cases.
Nandlall was purported to have a laissez-faire attitude towards work which affected the professionalism of the LSD staff as they were left unsupervised on a regular basis.
The board recommended that Nandlall should be transferred to another operational support area of GRA so that she could acquire the relevant experience and be equipped to properly represent GRA in the courts.