Dear Editor,
The watching of accountability by Mr Anand Goolsarran is testimony to the dangers of having persons who are employed by government or have a private practice granted access to the national newspapers and allowed to publish columns on a regular basis.
The particular column that reaffirmed my negative opinion of this practice is displayed in Mr Goolsarran’s Accountability Watch column of July 25, in Stabroek News, captioned ‘Three welcome developments: The appointment of the Tax Chief…’
Conflict of interest is the catch phrase in Guyana today, though it escapes a universal definition.
When one examines Mr Goolsarran’s comments on the appointment of the Commissioner-General, it is blatantly obvious that the focus of the watch is not so much on the individual appointed, but on a Canadian based “Guyanese chartered accountant of good repute” who was flown in at the expense of the taxpayer.
It was noted by Mr Goolsarran that the unsuccessful applicant was qualified as a Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA), Certified Public Accountant (CPA), MBA and a Certified General Accountant (CGA). He further revealed that the applicant owns an accounting and tax practice in Canada, worked with several international firms, and is also a Certified Fraud Examiner who is pursuing a law degree from the University of London ‒ not a law degree from one of our non-global Caribbean universities.
Please note that the article by Mr Goolsarran is supposed to be about the appointment of the now Commissioner-General of the Guyana Revenue Authority, Mr Godfrey Statia, not an unnamed applicant known to Mr Goolsarran who was not appointed to the position, and whose non-appointment seems to displease him.
It is interesting to note that the person who was appointed as CG of GRA, unbeknownst to some readers of Accountability Watch is qualified as a CPA, MBA, Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) Personal Financial Specialist (PFS), has a law degree from the Hugh Wooding Law School, University of the West Indies and also has an accounting and tax practice in the United States.
Mr Statia was also a Deputy Commissioner for several years at the Inland Revenue Department in the 1980s, which was headed by Mr Edgar Heyligar, as was Mr Khurshid Sattaur, the former head of GRA. (The GRA resulted from the merger of two departments, the Inland Revenue Department and Customs and Excise Department.)
Based on Mr Goolsarran’s close examination of the original vacancy notice, he concluded that external candidates were placed at a disadvantage on account of the requirement for “15 years` experience in customs administration, eight of which must be at an executive level,” as there was no provision for equivalent external experience. It seems to me the author/s of the vacancy notice saw no need to state the obvious. More alarming is Mr Goolsarran’s implied view that non-external candidates were not placed at a disadvantage.
In addition to highlighting the good repute of the unsuccessful applicant, Mr Goolsarran said the Commissioner-General selection process could “in some ways … be considered as bid rigging.” What a giant leap by our accountability watcher; perception and reality are both ignored.
Our national newspapers should be very careful in appointing columnists and commentators who are employed by the government or carry on private practice, and that includes government and corporate sector employees – Goolsarran, Ram and Lucas come to mind. Let these denizens of Guyana limit their opinions to ‘Letters to the editor’.
To paraphrase Mr Goolsarran, failure to relinquish his positions is posing a serious conflict of interest.
Yours faithfully,
Nigel Hinds
