GRA charges…. Kaieteur News incriminating ‘emails’ are false –Acknowledges that ‘fabrication’ was prompted by leaked information

THE Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), in advertisements in at least two of the local dailies, yesterday confirmed that there were “illegal disclosures and unlawful transmission of sensitive taxpayer information, personal information on the Head of GRA and other internal workings” of the Authority.

The Authority, however, maintains that the four emails, which have been published repeatedly by the embattled Kaieteur News over the past few days, are fabricated. .
According to the Authority, the leaked information was related to an impending audit into the operations of the local daily, and this is what prompted the ‘fabrication’ of the purported exchange emails, which, according to the Kaieteur News, occurred between the Commissioner-General of GRA, Mr. Khurshid Sattaur and senior Government functionaries, as well as former President, Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo.
Noteworthy also, is the fact that despite the newspaper’s claims of a ploy to “destroy the Kaieteur News” the ‘fabricated’ emails themselves never mentioned anything implicating the Kaieteur News.
According to the GRA in its advertisement, “These unlawful transactions (the leaked information) were clear indicators and drivers for a preliminary investigation as to whether a comprehensive audit of the company or Lall (Mr. Glen Lall)

Glenn Lall

was necessary.
“Unfortunately, Lall and the Kaieteur News were able to surreptitiously obtain this information by deceit, corruption and for illegal means, and have attempted to manipulate this information to stultify efforts by the GRA to conduct the comprehensive audit of the company by creating false emails purportedly suggesting a conspiracy to destroy the newspaper.”
Commissioner-General Sattaur has since called for an investigation into the leaked communications. The Authority is also currently preparing to formally request the Guyana Police Force (GPF) to conduct intensive and extensive investigations into the breach.
The GRA stated, too, that steps have been taken to “buttress” the Information Technology (IT) infrastructure, internal access to, and transmission of sensitive taxpayer information.

WARRANTED AUDIT
The Commissioner-General maintains that the impending comprehensive audit of Kaieteur News Holding Company was “warranted” and the initial analysis was prompted by recent discovery of incidents of tax infractions by Mr. Glenn Lall, the publisher of the Kaieteur News.
These discoveries, first made public by the Guyana Chronicle, include:
1. The alleged involvement of Mr. Lall, in an alleged remigrant duty-free scam via which two Lexus vehicles were sourced for use by him and his wife. Since the allegation was made, six charges, altogether, have been brought against Mr. Lall, his wife, Mrs. Bhena Lall, and the two remigrants.
2. Mr. Lall’s allegedly tax evasion, relative to the importation of printing ink for over a decade now. The allegation is that Mr. Lall has been importing printing ink and passing them off as products of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), so as to enjoy duty-free concessions for those importations.
The GRA Head has made it clear that a comprehensive audit is “not designed to destroy a company, but to ensure that the company is compliant with the tax and revenue laws” of Guyana.
“To date, the GRA has audited thousands of businesses, and is yet to receive reports that there was a conspiracy or plot to destroy the said business of that the business (es) was/were thereby destroyed,” the Authority stressed.