Dear Editor,
We would like to bring to the attention of our valued clients and members of the general public that we have worked for the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) since December 16, 2005 and we have never had a serious breach of security.
Recently it was discovered that four ranks were working the night shift when a theft occurred at the GRA Eccles warehouse. The senior management of Professional Guard Services (PGS) was informed on May 14, 2015 by Mr Duke, who is a member of the GRA Law Enforcement and Investigation Division, that there had been a theft of a large quantity of alcohol on May 13, 2015.
We immediately began to investigate the report and questioned the ranks who all denied knowledge of the robbery. This was reported to Mr Duke and he was advised to contact the Guyana Police Force to investigate the robbery immediately. He acknowledged same and said that they were reviewing the CCTV recordings. We kept contacting Mr Duke, who assured us that once they found anything on the CCTV recordings he would notify us.
On May 29 we received a call from Deputy Commissioner of the GRA, Ms Chapman, asking us to come and view the CCTV recordings. Two senior officials of PGS immediately responded so we could possibly identity who had been involved in the robbery. They viewed the CCTV recordings, and the very same ranks who had been questioned were identified. We handed the ranks over to the GRA and the Guyana Police Force to further investigate the robbery, and we are working with these organizations to get the perpetrators and have them arrested and put before the court.
This despicable and dishonest act which we strongly condemn, had to have the involvement of at least one GRA employee since there was no break-in of the container, and we are informed that the keys are lodged at the GRA headquarters in Georgetown and are only issued to authorized GRA employees. We were also informed that the GRA senior bond manager who migrated around the time of the robbery and was also in charge of the location around that time has mailed in his resignation with immediate effect.
PGS has a set policy of insisting that every guard provide the company with a Police Clearance Certificate and two character references.
In addition background checks are done as a pre-condition for employment. All of the ranks at the location in question were issued with such certificates. Two of the four ranks had been with the company for more than 10 years and had excellent files. I would like to assure everyone that we will do everything we can to put an end to this matter, and that we are cooperating fully with GRA and the Guyana Police Force.
Yours faithfully,
Dougal Kirkpatrick
Chief ExecutiveOfficer/
Managing Director
