Continued inefficiencies in the procedures associated with the Customs clearance of goods imported into Guyana are a serious impediment to the enhancement of the “culture of business in Guyana”, President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Chandradat Chintamani told Stabroek Business in an exclusive interview on Wednesday.
“Too many people continue to complain about the bottlenecks within the Customs and Trade Administration (CTA) including the long processes that attend the clearing of goods. We are also aware of charges of corruption in these processes. We are aware too that there are corrupt business people but I believe that if we seek to ensure that Customs procedures are rendered more transparent and less bureaucratic we can make it more difficult for those businessmen who are inclined towards offering bribes to Customs officers,” Chintamani told Stabroek Business.
In an interview with Stabroek Business late last year Chintamani had said that the GCCI had sought to engage the CTA with a view to easing the bottlenecks that engender corrupt practices. Asked during this week’s interview whether those initiatives had borne any fruit he said that the engagements had been stymied by “the sheer number of changes” that had been made in the department in recent months. “While we have tried on several occasions to engage the CTA, frankly, we have lost track of the direction in which they are going.”
While acknowledging that the Chamber was aware of the fact that the CTA was seeking “to redefine the way in which it does business” Chintamani said that the process was having the effect of “significantly slowing down” business. “Part of the problem is that the changes that the CTA is seeking to put in place now is in response to increased volumes of imports that started to happen two or three years ago. That is where the gap exists and that is where people are becoming frustrated.” He said that while the Chamber was both supportive and understanding of the necessity for change in the operations of the CTA the methodology that was being applied in pursuit of that process needs to be addressed. “The changes should reduce not increase the bureaucracy. While it may well be that the changes seek to make it more difficult for corrupt businessmen to offer bribes to Customs officials, those entities that transact their business in a transparent manner should not be subjected to undue and unfair frustrations,” Chintamani said.
The GCCI President said that he believed that in a dynamic business environment the CTA’s transaction time should be much faster. ‘If you look at other countries in the Caribbean the processing time for Customs transactions is far less than here in Guyana. We are behind the rest of the region and we need to change because business is dynamic. We really should be aiming for a just-in-time process.”
Meanwhile Chintamani told Stabroek Business that while the Chamber believed that there had been a significant reduction in the level of corruption that once obtained in the Customs process, the government continued to lose millions of dollars in revenue on account of the residue of the practice. “There have been a number of changes within the CTA including the removal of functionaries over whose character there have been question marks. While we accept that there have been positive changes in the system we do not believe that there should be new procedures that essentially penalize the business community,” Chintamani said.
Meanwhile, the GCCI President told Stabroek Business that all of the Chamber’s members were definitely “not on the same platform” as far as transparency is concerned. “I am calling on our members to come clean now. I have done this several times before and I am repeating my call to all members of the business community to come clean in their engagements with the CTA. If we come clean and reduce the level of corruption we can also remove those bottlenecks that impact on the smooth running of our businesses. We may not entirely eliminate corruption but if we can reduce it to a minimal level that becomes a win win situation for all of us. We can have a situation that is acceptable to both the government and the private sector,” Chintamani said.
