Senior revenue officials being paid tax-free
-Part of over 20 high-salaried contract workers getting US$$
Stabroek News
March 27, 2004
Several public sector officials are being paid large salaries in US dollars without paying a single cent in taxes, even as the government complains it does not have the revenue to offer increases on tax thresholds for the average worker.
According to a list of names obtained by Stabroek News, two contracted employees working with the Poverty Reduction Strategy Programme are taking home US$15,500 and US$10,400 each every month completely tax-free. Most notable are the two officials in the Guyana Revenue Authority who are getting salaries of US$4,000 and US$3,500 while paying no taxes themselves.
At the Ministry of Finance three employees are being paid US$3,200, US$5,000 and US$5,500.
One of these employees is said to have had his advanced education paid for entirely by the government while another appears to have a job requiring few specialist skills. None of them pay taxes. Over at the Privatisation Unit, US dollar salaries amount to US$9,000 while one employee within the Office of the President is getting US$2,400 per month tax free as part of a project that has been many years in the making and to date has had no impact.
All these salaries amount to around US$80,000 or $16M every month ($192M a year) for around 20 employees. They are paid by the government as part of foreign-funded programmes. One is the Finance Sector Programme 956 and the other Public Sector Technical Assistance Credit 3726.
But these projects are not based on grants but rather loans which will have to be paid back by taxpayers.
As such observers are questioning how these salaries could be paid without taxes being deducted. If the individuals were to pay taxes and still take home the same amount they would pay some $100M a year in contributions. As of now the government gets zero revenue.
Other information obtained by Stabroek News shows that the monthly payroll of contracted employees for the Office of the President amounts to over $3M, with some on the list being former ministers who have salaries of $216,013 and $204,750 per month while appearing to have no full-time jobs. A senior security official now retired receives $300,300 every month. Observers say these salaries are unjustifiable in light of the government's repeated claims of being cash-strapped. They are calling for the names of all the individuals to be made public given that they are being paid from government revenues.