The Guyana Revenue Autho-rity (GRA) has corrected several inaccuracies in a report in yesterday's edition of Kaieteur News (KN) which referred to several customs probes.
KN had said that a report on the disappearance of $6 million from customs at the Timehri airport was before President Bharrat Jagdeo. The GRA noted that the sum missing is $3,061,815 and not $6M. It added that the investigation is an internal matter and the report was not sent to the President as the KN article said.
The GRA revealed that the recommended disciplinary action was taken against the officers implicated in the matter. "In addition the police [are] still carrying out an investigation into this matter and any further disciplinary action awaits the findings of the police," the statement said.
On the issue of a fuel- smuggling incident in the North West, the GRA said that the team, which was set up to carry out an investigation into the smuggling, submitted its report to the President as was intended. But it said that contrary to the newspaper article the findings and several recommendations did not indicate that disciplinary action be taken against any staff of the GRA.
"In fact, the report in the main recommended that a fuel-marking system along with other internal measures be implemented to deal with such occurrences in future. It is to be noted that currently, a system is in operation by the Guyana Energy Authority (GEA) to mark the imported fuel for resale," the GRA said.
The GRA said too that court action has commenced against "a well-known fuel smuggler" who is among the subjects of the fuel-smuggling probe that Cabinet ordered.
The KN report had said that disciplinary action had been recommended against three customs officers including a senior one.