Khurshid Sattaur

Sattaur exposes GRA taxgate scandal

– admits to being pressured to act unprofessionally

By Vahnu Manickchand

Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan

Recently-sacked Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) Commissioner General Khurshid Sattaur has exposed a tax scandal at the Revenue Authority as he revealed several unscrupulous, illegal undertakings and malpractices taking place at the country’s premier tax and revenue collection agency.

Sattaur on Friday also made damning accusations about illegal and suspicious removal of tax information and files which were photocopied.

Those files, he said, related directly to records pertaining to Vice President and Public Security Minister Khemraj Ramjattan.

GRA Chairman Rawle Lucas, along with other executives, at the press conference on Friday

The former Commissioner General shockingly revealed that a “known” individual had photocopied and removed documents and he was forced to turn a “blind eye”.

Sattaur’s statement comes in light of corruption allegations made against him by Chairman of GRA’s Board, Rawle Lucas. In his defence, the former Commissioner General disclosed that after the new Board was put in place, he was unable to properly carry out his functions and was made to do certain unprofessional things.

His accusations also come on the heels of the Government on Thursday evening voting down a motion tabled by the parliamentary Opposition that sought to have Members of Parliament (MPs) publicly declare their income taxes and assets, and to have criminal charges advanced for non-compliance.

Efforts by Guyana Times to contact Minister Ramjattan and Finance Minister Winston Jordan for a comment on the allegations about the removal of the files proved futile.

However, during a press conference on Friday at the Revenue Authority’s Head Office on Camp Street, the Chairman said he was not aware of any such reports. “I cannot say; the GRA cannot say at this stage if any (taxpayers&rsquotes information might have been deleted… (or) might have been away from GRA,” he said.

Settling tax cases illegally, corruption

Meanwhile, Sattaur also claimed that he was forced to settle tax cases for meagre sums, costing the country’s coffers billions of dollars in lost revenue. He added that he was asked to promote unqualified staff, who were acting for a considerable period, before they were found to be suitably qualified and even those who had “questionable records” of service.

The former Commissioner General went on to disclose that staff members who were previously dismissed for corrupt practices have since been rehired and placed in senior positions.

On the other hand, during the press conference, the GRA Chairman sought to justify the Board’s decision to terminate the services of Sattaur, claiming that Sattaur committed several infractions. These include breaching his Oath of Office, being in possession of a safe used for storing confidential taxpayers’ documents and backdating benefits for himself.

However, the former Commissioner General, in the said statement, denied the accusations, calling them “highly offensive”. He further gave explanations of the circumstances of each allegation.

No admission

Lucas disclosed that Sattaur admitted to the Board that he had divulged information on a Guyanese taxpayer to an unauthorised individual one month before the May 2015 elections, which was in breach of his oath of office. While he opted not to name the taxpayer in question, the Chairman noted that it was not the Kaieteur News when asked.

But in his statement, Sattaur denied divulging taxpayers’ information to anyone. In fact, he said that he gave information to a Diplomatic Head of Mission based upon request to facilitate an internal probe at the Embassy. He noted that that data divulged was the diplomat’s and not a taxpayer’s.

“I do not agree that for the reasons given above that I admitted to the Board that I divulged taxpayers’ information… a month prior to the May 11, 2015 General Elections, a diplomat asked me to facilitate a probe that the foreign Government had been conducting into one of its staff members. One of their staff is not a taxpayer of this country. That staff member had allegedly breached a very serious protocol and had given the GRA information on someone which should not have been the case and as such, the diplomat was asked by his Government to investigate the matter,” he pointed out.

GRA Chairman’s counter allegations

However, the GRA Chairman noted that Sattaur also told the Board that he had a safe that was normally used to keep confidential taxpayers’ data at his residence. According to Lucas, the safe is supposed to be under the control of the Head of GRA’s Information and Technology (IT) Division and not at Sattaur’s home. He added that the Commissioner General had explained that the safe was at his residence given the fact that his son was an IT officer at the revenue agency.

The Chairman could not say whether any of the information in the safe was compromised. However, Sattaur disclosed that while his son in his senior capacity was given responsibility for storing the tax agency’s data at another safe place offsite, this process of storing data at his home was abandoned some five years ago.

“My home or the safe was no longer the repository of that information. I categorically state that the safe never had any data. I wish to state further that the infrastructure related to the backing up of the data has since been removed under the directive of the new GRA Board,” he noted.

During Friday’s press conference, the Head of the GRA Board further revealed to media operatives that Sattaur, who was appointed Commissioner General in 2003, had retired in 2011, but continued serving in the post via an “implied contract”. He noted that the former Commissioner General had racked up millions in pension money, after he backdated the payments to 2007, causing Government to incur an expense of $12 million.

“Our Legal Services Division was asked to examine this action and to provide us with more rational or supportive legal basis for what appears, prima facie, a highly irregular course of action that created the misleading impression also that he was retained under permanent establishment and that he was not on contract,” the Chairman noted.

But Sattaur explained that he was unaware of these benefits under GRA’s contributory pension scheme and was recently advised of them, so he claimed for them after getting approval from the Human Resources Department, which had failed to inform him before of the benefits.

“If this is so wrong, why was the monies approved for payment?” questioned Sattaur.

Lucas said furthermore investigations were ongoing as to how two vehicles belonging to GRA, one of which was a gift, have the same registration number at the same time. Additionally, the Authority is looking into reports of a GRA registered vehicle being driven by an individual unauthorised to do so. But, Sattaur maintained in his lengthy statement that he always only had two vehicles in his possession – a Camry and a Fortuna, the latter, however, he was recently relieved of.

According to the Head of the GRA Board, these factors were considered by the Board in its decision to terminate the services of Sattaur, who was sent on leave in December to facilitate an internal probe.

The Chairman further disclosed that the Authority’s legal team was currently working on whether criminal charges would be brought against the former Commissioner General. “We are still examining the options that are available to us at this particular point in time,” he stated.

On the other hand, Sattaur said he was all set to take legal action against GRA if necessary. “I have given appropriate direction to my lawyers so that they can act in my best interest,” he said.