The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) said on Friday that implementation of its Total Revenue Integrated Processing System (TRIPS) was not a one-man show and it was “erroneous” to believe that a few functionaries have been administering systems in the organisation.

GRA made this point in a press release, in which it took issue with certain aspects of a Stabroek Business article of the same date under the  headline ‘System of allocating sensitive responsibilities inside GRA may have incubated Fidelity fraud’.

“It is important to demystify the erroneous belief that a few ‘functionaries’ were on their own in administering systems, more particularly implementing [TRIPS] the release said.

TRIPS replaced ASYCUDA and became functional simultaneously with the introduction of VAT in January 2007.

Commissioner-General Khurshid Sattaur is quoted in the release as saying that, “the TRIPS implementation was not a one-man show. In fact there were various committees set up to ensure its successful implementation. There were hiccups no doubt as one would expect in any new system. …..