Evidence implicates ministry officials in fraud
-report into remigrant concession scam
Stabroek News
March 13, 2004
A report into a remigrant concession scam has concluded that a ring of officials at the Ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs clearly colluded to defraud the government of revenue.
The report is said to recommend that criminal charges should be considered against one individual at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and three officials at Finance. All the applicants should also be charged for falsely declaring they were remigrants and importing about fifty vehicles without paying duty. They will also be required to pay all outstanding duties.
According to sources, a significant number of those vehicles have since been seized since President Bharrat Jagdeo gave the directive on Wednesday.
Stabroek News understands that both the Auditor-General's Department and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) have received copies of the report as ordered by Jagdeo. Sources say that the report forms a solid basis for swift police action against those implicated.
Investigators found a clear case of backdating of documents by officers at the finance ministry so as to get Secretary to the Treasury (ST) letters signed with dates prior to September 1. This was because after that date the authority for granting remissions was to come from the Guyana Revenue Authority. In one case an ST letter was approved with a date of August 28 but the applicant's documents were not forwarded from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which ascertains a person's remigrant status, until October 30. Four other applicants were approved for remigrant status in September but their duty free concessions were granted by the Finance Ministry with dates in August.
Stabroek News has also been told that ST letters were signed for vehicles over 4500 CC when this is not permitted. Among those getting an ST letter for such a vehicle is a professional who has been practising in Guyana for numerous years.
The report is said to recommend that all those persons must pay the full duties.
At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the remigration officer is cited as having photocopied original letters signed by the minister so as to use the documents as blueprints for bogus applications. A book tracking the movement of these letters within the ministry has yet to be produced to investigators.
Officers at the Ministry of Finance accepted the photocopied documents despite the insistence that only original documents were permissible.
Several instances were found where supposed remigrants had not owned their vehicles six months prior to being deemed a remigrant as is required. Others provided bills of sale from Japan. The report has recommended that one applicant from Berbice be arrested for submitting a false document.
It was also found that some persons received duty-free concessions long after they had come back to the country. And cases were found where applicants even purchased the vehicles, most of which were SUVs, after they had obtained a concession.
Stabroek News was also told that the report found that the names on the ownership titles for the vehicles did not match with the person receiving the approval.