The two Guyana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GYEITI) reports that have been published to date do not paint a complete picture as they do not include revenue statements by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), which would require a presidential waiver, National Coordinator Dr Rudy Jadoopat recently disclosed.
According to Jadoopat, GRA is prohibited by the laws of Guyana from giving tax information to unauthorised persons unless the president issues a waiver and give GRA the go-ahead to release such information. He noted that this issue was brought to the attention of the previous APNU+AFC administration and the now- PPP/C government but to date no waiver has been issued so that GYEITI can have access to the relevant information.
“To date that waiver has not been made and therefore GRA still cannot provide all of the information required for the analysis that is necessary to prepare the EITI report in the best possible way,” Jadoopat said during the virtual Guyana Extractives Industry Transparency Week programme that was hosted by the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF)-Guyana Extractive Sector Transparency Project (GYEST) project earlier this month.
