Illegal rum shop crackdown coming -GRA

By Oluatoyin Alleyne

The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) will soon be embarking on an exercise to address illegal rum shop operations and the possible over-representation of liquor stores in various communities according to Senior Manager and licensing officer Sean Richmond.

He said this move had been prompted by a recognition that the operations of liquor establishments were a matter of serious concern.

“I have been instructed to charter an approach… in the closer environment in Georgetown [for now] to form a team who will visit and ensure that we tackle [breaches]. We are not going to sideline those persons who don’t have a licence… whether you are licensed or not and we discover you are not operating according to the provisions we will be inclined to take some actions, we have to,” Richmond told Stabroek News in a recent interview.

During the wide-ranging interview Richmond admitted that even though the GRA had been doing work there were many shortcomings in the licensing process for liquor establishments – something that Berbice Magistrate Tejnarine Ramroop had alluded to in a previous interview with this newspaper.

Richmond is of the view that there is need for a holistic approach involving all the agencies to address the issue, but is also of the opinion that some legislative changes are required, as certain of the laws which govern liquor establishments are 40 years old, such as the $5,000 fee that an applicant pays for a liquor licence.

Then there is the fact that the licensing boards – there is one for each county – only meet on a quarterly basis and this in itself creates problems, coupled with the fact that sometimes there are no boards. At one time Demerara had no liquor licence board for almost three years and persons were unable to renew their licences and others had no way of being granted a licence.

‘Damaging effect’

According to Richmond, who has some twenty-three years as the licensing officer, the GRA is at present addressing some staffing and training issues with a particular focus on liquor licences, “but not only liquor licence[s]; there is a broader picture because at the same time we are automating modules where we can get more ready reports…

“I can tell you that over the next two three months you will have… more liquor licence activities than are happening [now]. That is not to say that we are not having any, but there will be intensification.”

Asked what prompted this move, Richmond said that while it was a requirement, there was a recognition that there had been an increase in the number of persons who were operating without a licence, and many complaints about noise nuisance and other nuisances.

“All of this informs that we need to regulate closer, given the acceptance that alcohol can have a damaging effect if consumed beyond acceptable levels… Alcohol has to be properly regulated; there is much more that needs to be done and in some cases there is need to create legislation because perhaps there would be limitations in some areas as to how much can be done,” Richmond said.

“I am cognizant that the Ministry of Home Affairs has been pressuring us to do something about this issue; it is being discussed at the highest levels… so it is an instruction coming from inter-agencies…” Richmond added.

He said that the different agencies needed to work together, although he qualified this by saying it might not be the priority of every agency at a given time, since they would prioritize as the need arose, and sometimes this could be counterproductive.

“We are cognizant that there has been abuse [of the law] from time to time, and for various reasons there perhaps is need for intensification of an approach to curb all these things. It is a resource issue as well,” Richmond explained.

According to the licensing officer, there were many factors which were responsible for the “attenuation of societal norms, even though we have ideals that are set out as guidelines.”

He pointed out that even when boards were not in operation the Guyana Police Force was empowered to monitor who sold liquor, and they could conduct seizures.

“It is not about throwing the… blame on anybody [but] the police have a role as a central requirement to monitor the behaviour of people and to conduct seizures… so there are actually standard times when business[es] are required to close… and this is the position in law… but there is need for more of a review of what happens,” Richmond said.

He went on to observe that what was required was “an approach… to sensitize holders of licences and to remind them of their obligations under the law, not to sell liquor to minors… so definitely there is something that needs to be done, and the enforcement part – there is need for a relook, there is need for the police to play their role…”

Richmond also acknowledged that the GRA should play its role, and he said that recently they had taken a decision to “come up with what is necessary… but we are not independently alone responsible; to enforce the act empowers the police in particular to visit within [a] district.”

How it works

Elaborating on the licensing process, Richmond told Stabroek News that there were three liquor licensing boards – one for each  county – and the members were made up of three magistrates who met on a quarterly basis.

With the expansion of communities, he went on, there was need for more boards to be established. GRA personnel sat as clerks of the boards on behalf of the Commissioner General. The boards sought to address applications that gave permission to a licensee to sell spirituous liquor and they would also hear objections and deal with matters of suspension where necessary.

The magistrates are appointed to the boards by the Minister of Finance.

“We [the GRA] as clerk of the boards can visit licensees to monitor whether or not they are maintaining their obligations under the act, and likewise persons do make complaints (against a licence holder) from time to time, but they can’t go straight to the magistrate’s court and make a complaint; they would have to make it through us…” Richmond said.

He admitted there were also persons who were not licensees, and these were also reported and the GRA workers would then visit and “try to investigate so that we have positions we could put forward to the board meetings and we can recommend as well, but the final decision is with the board.” He said the licence holder could also represent himself/herself at the meeting or have a lawyer represent their interest.

Some of the conditions for being granted a licence include the requirement that the applicant must be 18 years or over, and must be of good character, although Richmond pointed out that the latter was a subjective judgement.

“But for our purpose we are guided by, and we tend to use for the most part, a police clearance; but that is not to say that we cannot have a recommendation from a judge or somebody who stands out in society… to be recognized,” Richmond said.

Importantly the boards have the responsibility of regulating the “impact that liquor itself has when imbibed by people on the society. So as part of the way the legislation is scripted… they have a responsibility to regulate how many businesses are in an area because even though there is obligation for the licensee themselves [to] not sell more than a certain amount to a particular person, time to time persons get drunk, they urinate, expose themselves; the liquor itself has an impact on judgment.”

The boards therefore have the responsibility to regulate the number of licensed premises that are in a specific area and Richmond explained that while the law did not specify a number, if one area was saturated, then it would come under scrutiny. He said instead of granting another licence to a person in that area, the boards would wait until one of the premises had been closed or disqualified.

“They themselves [the magistrates] would provide the limitations; they wouldn’t necessarily say like not more than eight, nine or ten. They would visit and see what’s happening in the area and based on that and other criteria they would decide,” Richmond said.

Also the board and the GRA would not grant too many licences in a residential area as opposed to a shopping district, and as such for that purpose one of the requirements before a licence was granted was an approved plan from the Central Housing & Planning Authority.

“So if housing don’t approve you, we don’t proceed,” Richmond told Stabroek News.

Reports

Meanwhile Richmond admitted that persons would experience difficulties when trying to report offences committed by a licensee, such as selling alcohol to a child.

He said while persons were required to report the offences to the GRA they could also report them to the police, who were required to take follow-up action.

However, persons had not been making such reports because it had “become a societal norm, which is not a good thing and [there] is need for a re-look, a review. I don’t think there is need for a re-creation of a legislative position, but an approach as to how it is enforced.”

Richmond pointed out that it was not that a report could not be done by via phone, or that an objection to a person being granted a licence required them to go to court to give evidence.  He added that GRA employees were evidence.  He added that GRA employees were not empowered to make citizen’s arrests, as that was the role of the police, but they could take a person’s licence if they were found to be in breach of its conditions.

“The GRA has an enforcement arm and we have been filtering information to that arm to do investigations relative to complaints that have been received, and we have been having some results from time to time,” Richmond said.

Importantly, he said there had been no complaints of alcohol being sold to children.

Richmond said persons who lodged complaints in some cases may have to end up hiring the services of a lawyer to represent them, as they may not be able to attend the quarterly meetings of the boards.

He said it was a requirement that a complainant turned up to give evidence at the boards, and he suggested that there was need for a complementary approach to address the burden that such cases could place on the judicial system and persons who were aggrieved. This could be done through lay magistrates so that matters were not only dealt with at the quarterly meetings and complainants were not made to wait for months to have the issues addressed.

“There is a need for adjustments; resources are a problem. I can’t tell you that we can throw all our resources behind alcohol because one needs to evaluate… While you would have a measurable value somehow by reducing impact on society the resources that have to be budgeted to address those things – it might not compensate…” Richmond said, adding that there was need to prioritize.

Requirements

Some licences required under the law that the premises have proper toilet facilities for use by the public, and it was also expected that under-age persons were not employed by the owner. If it is a restaurant, “it can’t be a shack; [it must be] whatever is reasonably acceptable, and for one to support this position we ask that you have a sanitary certificate.”

Persons are charged $250 dollars for an occasional licence while the other licences cost $5,000 and have to be renewed yearly.

Richmond explained that there were many types of liquor licences and they all had different criteria, but there were also many “commonalities for some types of licence, and in that respect we can be guided by some specific norms which are common to some kind of licence.”

He said there were licences which authorized persons to sell malt liquor, such as beer, Guinness and wine, and were referred to as malt and wine licences. Then there were some licences that were administered by the Commissioner General of the GRA on behalf of the liquor licensing boards, meaning that these could be issued by the Commissioner General without the applications being taken before any board.

“But generally it is the liquor licensing boards that have the sole authority for the issuing or suspension or withdrawal of licensing,” Richmond said.

One of the issues that Magistrate Ramroop had raised in the recent interview was the fact that persons with off-licences set up a bar atmosphere and had persons on their premises consuming alcohol. Asked about this Richmond said it was a breach of the licence provision, and if their investigations revealed that the person was indeed engaging in such practices the GRA would take steps to apply sanctions under the law which could ultimately result in the closure of the establishment.

The magistrate, who had said that 100% of the domestic violence cases that went before him were alcohol related, had argued that alcohol was too accessible and there was need for more stringent measures to be taken by the licensing boards.