The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) is to receive a gift of a US$4 million container scanner from the government of the People’s Republic of China, which Commissioner-General Khurshid Sattaur says will boost its export surveillance capacity, thereby ensuring revenue collection and detecting drugs being smuggled through the ports.
The container scanner, due to arrive today, is said to be a mobile unit unlike the fixed one already in place at Guyana National Shipping Corporation (GNSC) Wharf.
Speaking to this newspaper yesterday, Sattaur said the scanner will be used to enhance the GRA’s surveillance of outward-bound containerised cargo from the Georgetown wharves. The GRA not only scans for narcotics and other illegal items but also for verification of the contents of the container against shipping documents presented so as to prevent illegal smuggling of items or evasion of customs duties and other applicable taxes.
Sattaur said the container scanner will be able to scan a container in about one minute and said that this scanner is more advanced than the one already in place. He said the cost of it is about $800 million. According to Sattaur, technicians are already in Guyana awaiting the arrival of the scanner from China with a view to ensuring that it is properly set up and put into operation.
Sattaur said that the container scanner will be a boon to the GRA and will ensure that Guyana is compliant with new maritime regulations regarding containers en route to the United States. These regulations make it mandatory that containers are scanned before they are allowed to enter into the US.
Further, he said that the scanner in place and functioning acts as a deterrent to anyone bent on smuggling dutiable goods or illicit drugs through the ports. He added that the full measure of savings that the scanner is responsible for cannot be easily quantified, since one has to take into consideration the ‘deterrent’ function it performs.
Maintenance
Sattaur said that the current container scanner was out of commission for a few days some weeks ago because it was undergoing scheduled maintenance. He said it was untrue to say that the scanner was not working. Because of the sensitive nature of the equipment, only the manufacturer is allowed to perform this maintenance as is outlined in the terms of the purchase of the scanner, which was acquired about two years ago from a US-based company called RapiScan at a cost of $400 million.
Since the installation of the first scanner in 2011, the GRA has unearthed a number of attempts to smuggle illicit drugs, primarily cocaine, through the nation’s ports. However, at the same time there were a number of narcotics discoveries in foreign ports of call in containers arriving from Guyana, demonstrating that in some way, smugglers were able to beat the system and export their drug-tainted cargoes.
The GRA has been in the news lately following the disclosure that a Chinese company Bai Shan Lin is building a parking lot for the GRA. This parking lot is being built along the Lamaha Railway Embankment and has attracted public outcry and accusations of lack of transparency and the potential for conflict of interest.
Sattaur publicly defended the arrangement that was made between his agency and the Chinese company, saying that Bai Shan Lin saw that the GRA had a critical need in terms of parking space and wanted to contribute to finding a solution. According to Sattaur, it was a gift and there were no invitations for bids for the execution of the works.
One of the most vocal critics of the arrangement is the President of the Transparency Institute of Guyana Inc (TIGI) and former Auditor General Anand Goolsarran. He said that there is no propriety in a commercial or corporate or business entity that has to conduct business with a government agency or department presenting gifts to that agency or department. He said that in the case of the GRA and Bai Shan Lin, the former may be pressed into a corner when it has to make decisions about assessing the latter’s taxes if it accepts gifts from the company.
Goolsarran did say, however, that it is not improper for the Government of China, or any Government to make a gift to the people of Guyana through one of its government departments.
