Work is being done behind the scenes to deal with corrupt customs officers, according to Finance Minister Winston Jordan who on Monday acknowledged that they have given the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) “a bad name”.
Speaking at a press conference, Jordan said bribery will take place for any number of reasons adding that unfortunately in Guyana several of those conditions exist.
He said that GRA has a new board in place and it has been looking at all aspects of running the organisation. “That is why you are seeing a couple of things being uncovered at the moment”, he said before stressing that government has zero tolerance for bribery.
“There is so much we can do but there are two parts to a bribe, one, who is paying and one who is accepting and so what we can do at GRA is reduce the conditions for bribes. I don’t know that we are going to be able to remove them totally but we can reduce the conditions…and we can also make conditions harsh for those who are caught and you can do more undercover work”, he said.
According to the minister, some new arrangements in terms of the some of GRA’s internal structures have already been put in place “A number of things are being done”, he stressed adding that customs officials particularly those at the country’s port of entries seems to be taking their work much more seriously
