Khurshid Sattaur uses office as instrument of terror – Harmon

-“Explores legal avenues to sanction public officials who abuse positions,”

Khurshid Sattaur, GRA boss

Considering the manner in which some public officials appear to be misusing their powers and offices to muzzle those who are critical of the government, A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU) Shadow Minister of Public Works, Joseph Harmon is now exploring all the legal possibilities that would allow him to sanction such officers.
“When we examine the attacks by tax chief, Khurshid Sattaur, against the Kaieteur News publisher, Glenn Lall, we clearly see that it is being done out of spite. We can’t have people in certain positions that put aside good judgment to take out vengeance on a man who is desperately seeking to awaken the public with the truth and expose corruption.
“Lall is fighting for the ordinary man and they are doing all they can to break him. The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) boss is simply using his position as an instrument of fear,” said Harmon, yesterday.
The APNU politician said that the GRA’s first move to embarrass the Kaieteur News for its stern position on anti-corruption was when the GRA boss, on the instructions of a government minister, seized two vehicles that belong to the family friends of Lall.
The next attack, he said, was via an article in the Chronicle Newspaper with the headline, “GRA investigates millions of $$$ in Customs duties evasion- Glenn Lall again implicated.”
The article mentioned an unnamed “tax analyst” who contended that Lall is now said to be at the “centre of an alleged evasion” where his company has, for over a decade now, been “importing printing inks and passing them off as products of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM); therefore enjoying duty free concessions for those importations.”
The “tax analyst” believes that several hundreds of millions of dollars were lost.
GRA, according to the report, also claimed that it has not made progress in the investigations. Several months passed before Lall called Sattaur in February in relation to the said matter and it was eventually settled between the two a while now.
Lall had said he continues to be disappointed in GRA and its Commissioner-General, Khurshid Sattaur. He said that Sattaur displays an inability to manage the agency in a transparent manner. He said that in the first instance the ink was imported by National Media and Publishing Company, and not Glenn Lall.
Harmon said that the GRA, with the use of the Chronicle Newspaper, is apparently clutching at “all available straws” in an effort to silence Kaieteur News which has been very critical of the tax agency and its stewardship of concessions granted to foreign companies.
Even now, the tax boss is unable to clearly provide the status of the concessions granted to Bai Shan Lin and how these are being managed effectively to ensure Guyana benefits in the long run and is not being robbed of revenue.
Sattaur had cited “confidentiality” to be the main reason why he is prohibited from sharing the truth with curious citizens.
Harmon said, too, that the Commissioner of the Guyana Forestry Commission, James Singh, is also guilty of misuse of office and power.
The APNU Parliamentarian said that he feels that public officials who facilitate allowing resources of the country to be carried off by foreign and local companies should face the court for malfeasance in public office.
Harmon said that while he is still in the preliminary stages of his research, he is doing some consultations on how to proceed with regard bringing the public officials to the books. He said that for too long, certain officials have been “abusing their powers and hiding behind their desks.”
“The former President Bharat Jagdeo got away with his crookish behaviour but as for Singh, Sattaur and Winston Brassington, who by his very actions is without a doubt one of the masters of one sided negotiations, I will certainly see to it that the right action is taken,” Harmon said.
On Sattaur’s recent attacks against Lall, Harmon said that the tax chief needs to display, as a public officer, a sense of balance and a lack of bias. The Parliamentarian contended that the GRA boss should not arbitrarily pick and choose people he wants to penalize because they are critical of the government.
Sattaur’s actions simply reflect vindictiveness, he said. He hopes that the tax chief will exercise the same level of diligence in calling for all those vehicles that were given duty free concessions to Bai Shan Lin to be seized and so that the relevant taxes can be paid.
Failure to do this, Harmon said, only leaves citizens to conclude that Sattaur is, beyond the shadow of a doubt, guilty of malfeasance in public office.
“I am also saying that it would appear as if the Commissioner General is basically acting and carrying out the dictates of the PPP, in particular the instructions of Jagdeo and his favourite colleagues.
“I am calling for Sattaur to display an even mindedness with the Guyanese people and he should stop utilizing his office as an instrument of fear against anyone who dares to criticize this government. Sattaur must understand that he is a servant of the people and is not beholden to the PPP for the position which he holds,” the politician concluded.