However, he did say that he told two media houses that a transaction involving Marks was irregular.

He said that Marks' signature was seen on processing documents for a businessman on June 11, when the importer's container arrived in the country on June 16, last. Heyligar said he was asked if this practice was regular and had said no.

But the Commissioner General maintained that he did not cite Marks for any irregularity.

As a controversy brews between the two, Heyligar told the Chronicle that he is the "ultimate authority" and thus he has an obligation to investigate irregularities and bring these to the attention of the Board of the GRA, under which the Customs and Trade Administration falls.

In a telephone interview, Heyligar, unhappy that Marks spoke to the media on Tuesday, said he would be pursuing the matter internally, as Marks' action was unethical.

He refuted charges by Marks that he (Heyligar) is involved in a conspiracy to get rid of him and remarked that Marks "suspects that he might have to go" and was looking for "sympathy".

Heyligar said he does not have the power to dismiss Marks, but he can so recommend.

Marks on Tuesday charged that there was a conspiracy by members of the GRA, including Mr. Heyligar, politicians and "corrupt businessmen" to "damage" or "get rid" of him because of his actions to halt the massive swindling of duties and taxes.

Speaking to reporters at Customs headquarters in Georgetown, Marks said that Heyligar had personally denied labelling him for an irregularity in reports carried by the `Prime News' TV programme and the `Kaieteur News' newspaper, but had failed to do this publicly.

He said it therefore appears to him that Heyligar did speak to the two media houses "and/or was deliberately allowing this false perception to exist with the specific objective of damaging" his character.

Marks said that in the news reports he was cited for an act of irregularity for having processed documents for one Mr. Ahmad.

"Mr. Ahmad's documents went through the Classification, Entry Processing and Valuation Units and no problems were found with them, hence payment of $3.9M in duties and taxes was made after which he requested permission to have his goods examined at his premises", he related.

"I had nothing to do with the processing of Mr. Ahmad's documents. My only involvement was the granting of approval for the examination of contents of the container at his premises", Marks declared.

He said the established processing procedure was followed and neither Ahmad, the Customs and Trade Administration, nor he did anything wrong.

"The process with examination on premises is that the container is escorted by officers of the Customs and Trade Administration from the wharf to the premises where examination of the contents of the container is done", he noted.

Marks said that on April 1 last, he personally got involved in the oversight of the operations in the Valuation Unit of Customs, and examination at wharves so as to stop leakages in the areas of under-invoicing, false declaration, local consumption tax and smuggling.

He said he got involved because his highlighting these areas of leakages did not bring much results from the officers responsible, and billions of dollars were being swindled.

Marks said that contrary to past trends, despite the current business downturn, revenue collection has increased consistently since he stepped in.

He said revenue collection climbed by $142M in April, and in May there was an increase of $97M.

Further, he said, revenue collection in May 2002 surpassed the projected target of $37.5M.

Marks claimed that his efforts did not come without personal cost to himself and he made enemies, including with a city importer of footwear.

He said that from investigations with the importer's supplier of Miami, U.S., the city businessman undervalued his goods by about 300 per cent, and was thus seeking to evade paying $2.1M in duties and taxes.

Marks said that when he disclosed the findings to other officials, he was pressured to release the businessman's container.

He said the container was released on June 14 on deposit of $.4.3M in duties and taxes.

Marks claimed that the same Customs officer who normally prepares the Customs documents for the businessman in question, also facilitates the clearance of his goods at the wharves.

This, he said, is a conflict of interest, and named the officer in question of boasting about buying an RAV 4 x 4 vehicle and a $2.5M diamond ring.

Marks also said that he was asked to expedite the release of the businessman's container at the time when it had not yet arrived.

However, in his comments to the Chronicle yesterday, Heyligar said Marks had asked him for some time to release the container as he was awaiting some documents from overseas. Heyligar said that he therefore asked Marks to release the container as soon as the requested time was up.

Marks also denied a `Kaieteur News' report that 17 containers were released by Customs without proper documentation.