While promising that the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) would have a spanking new headquarters, the government has now taken back the land earmarked for the agency at Pattensen, East Coast of Demerara and assigned it to a hotel developer, sources have revealed.
“The GRA new headquarters land was given to someone for a hotel to be constructed on…as part of a country development decision,” a source close to government told Stabroek News.
“[Government] took away the land and used it to build a hotel among other things,” another source informed.
When GRA Commissioner-General Godfrey Statia was contacted by Stabroek News and asked about the developments, he responded “that question is best answered by the Ministry of Finance”.
Probed further, he tersely said, “Like I said, that question is best answered by the Ministry of Finance”.
Stabroek News yesterday visited the Pattensen area and works were forging ahead for the construction of a hotel by Pasha Global on a large plot of land while next door, lands were cleared and a bridge constructed to connect the roadway to the property.
This newspaper also reached out to Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh asking about the lands being used for hotel construction and whether government had future plans for a new building for the revenue agency.
Up to press time, Singh had not responded.
A new HQ for the GRA has been floated for a number of years. The Camp Street building currently in use has experienced a range of problems and traffic congestion has become a major issue.
Yesterday, concrete works were ongoing at Camp Street and on the Avenue which separates the eastern and western halves of the street.
A GRA official informed that, “Work is being done to improve the parking and drainage.”
The official said that the GRA was responsible for the works being carried out on the western side while a businessman who owns the property on the opposite side of the agency is funding that aspect.
This newspaper understands that when the concrete works are completed, “plants, benches and lighting in the Avenue will follow” as a means of improving the aesthetics of the areas between Quamina and Middle streets on Camp Street.
In 2015, the GRA received expressions of interest for the designing of a new headquarters at Liliendaal but the location was not identified.
The designs were submitted just short of three years after the GRA moved into its Camp Street premises in a much-criticised deal. It saw the tax agency paying a monthly rent of around $5M to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) after the then PPP/C government spent $227M to retrofit the building for the revenue agency. The arrangement had been seen as a way of helping the NIS to recover from bad investment deals. The building was previously owned by CLICO (Guyana) Inc., which had a large sum outstanding to the NIS when it collapsed.
During his August, 2015 Budget presentation, then Finance Minister Winston Jordan had lamented the poor state of the current headquarters, saying it was not fit for occupation.
Then one year later, in June of 2016, the APNU+AFC government announced that lands that been allocated to Indian developers of the Sun and Sand Group, who had in 2014 turned sod for the project under the Donald Ramotar PPP/C administration , would instead be used.
The group were also given a casino licence with promise of a US$54M hotel. However, Ramotar had rescinded the licence saying he had no choice, since after one year and many promises there was no sign of work to make the venture a reality.
The lands had been left unattended and persons used the area to graze their cows and sheep.
During the same period, the GRA building had been leaking and during an earth tremor in 2020 started to shake, sparking panic among workers. The agency had done remedial works to the roof to prevent leaking but no works to remedy structural problems or cracks on the building.
It is unclear what became of the proposals that were submitted in 2015.
But then last September, the agency again requested proposals for the design and supervision of the construction of a new headquarters at Pattensen.
It is not clear what persons who tendered for that contract were told by the GRA.
