GRA Head defends Bai Shan Lin parking deal

The Head of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) yesterday defended an arrangement with a Chinese firm for the construction of a car park on the Lamaha Street embankment amid concerns about the propriety of the arrangement.

Following queries by Stabroek News last week, it was revealed that controversial Chinese firm Bai Shan Lin was creating a car park for the GRA along a section of the embankment. Critics say an ad hoc deal between the country’s tax collecting agency and a foreign company which has been snared in a number of controversies here is inappropriate. Not only will GRA have to pay a fee to Bai Shan Lin but the construction is also occurring in an area that the government had previously said should only be for overhead high tension power lines. The Guyana Power and Light (GPL) has since written the Public Works Ministry complaining about the decision to allow the use of the of the area by the GRA.

Yesterday GRA Commissioner General Khurshid Sattaur issued a release defending the deal.  Sattaur said that given the “nightmarish plight” the GRA faces to find parking for staff and customers at its headquarters on Camp Street, Bai Shan Lin had “seized the opportunity to demonstrate its corporate social responsibility” by building a parking area on