Sattaur says $2B went uncollected
From June 18, until the end of the public service strike, the work of the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) was severely disrupted by the actions of a group of protesters who had taken to blockading the Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC) Building on Robb Street, IRD Commissioner Khursid Sattaur said yesterday. Sattaur was among several staffers from IRD who testified before the Commission of Enquiry into incidents that occurred around the GPOC building during the strike. Sattaur was the fourth of five witnesses among whom were Assistant Commissioner of IRD, Patricia Atherley; Inspector of Taxes and Supervisor of the Liability Section, Peter Lewis; and Inspector of Taxes and Public Relations Officer, Peter Fraser. Led by counsel to the commission, Mortimer Cumberbatch, Sattaur testified that over $2 billion in revenue went uncollected during the strike. This figure, he said, was an estimate of revenue expected to have been collected from corporate entities as well as revenue that should have come in on April 30, the deadline for the submission of income tax returns. The public service strike began a day before that deadline and Sattaur recalled that IRD officials had put alternative arrangements in place to have people drop their income tax returns into boxes at the GPOC's main entrances. But, he added, some of the groups in front of the building had thrown these down. Both Sattaur and Lewis offered descriptions of the crowds that had squatted in front of the gates with both men noting that the crowd had been noisy and abusive. Sattaur testified that turnout at the department was affected during the latter days of the strike despite him having taken a survey one day which determined that some 200 members of his staff were willing to work. He said that many officers who seemed willing to work had been prevented from doing so by the blockade and work was further hampered by frequent blackouts and bomb threats. The department, he said, had been also affected in the area of its filing division after that department's supervisor and the majority of its staff went on strike. However, Sattaur said that a system had been worked out allowing the department to work around this obstacle. He said that on June 17, he was the only member of staff who had been allowed to enter the building, but went on to recall incidents of being verbally abused with racial slurs by the crowd and being locked in on one occasion. He recalled being told by some of his junior officers who were among the crowd, to "get out de place" and shared his feelings of embarrassment and shock at being disciplined by those whom he was used to disciplining. The effect of the blockade was not limited to the GPOC building but was also felt at the IRD's Licensing Division in Princes Street where a similar state of affairs prevailed. Fraser, who testified in the morning session, had also spoken about being verbally threatened and receiving threatening phone calls after he participated in a radio programme designed to educate the public about alternative arrangements being made for their benefit during the strike. He said that he had been forced to abort the second such programme after being told by members of staff that they were worried about what strikers would do to them following the first programme. Fraser said that workers explained to him that even though they were going to work they nevertheless supported the strike. He further recalled being threatened by a guard employed by the GPOC, who told him that he was saying "stupidness" on the air and that he would arrange a beating for him, or words to that effect. The enquiry also heard testimony from Sidney Douglas, a driver employed at the GPOC building, and Ragunauth Persaud, a Supreme Court legal clerk who supplied testimony placing First Vice-President of the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU), Dr Anwar Hussein, around the High Court during the time two women wrested away a barrier from Police officers present and threw it into a nearby canal. Douglas, who was the last witness for the day, testified that he had been slapped on two separate occasions by a striking worker and had retaliated once. He said that shortly after the Postal and Telecommunication Workers Union (PTWU) had proceeded on strike he had tried to enter the GPOC building and been stopped. He said there was a postwoman, whom he named, among the persons who had stopped him. She had held the GPOC's sliding door closed in front of him with one hand and denied him entry, Douglas said. He recounted that he had told the woman that he was simply going to retrieve some personal effects left in a vehicle but that the woman had kept the door closed. He then pried her finger one by one off the door and then entered the building, the driver said, but the woman followed him and slapped him. He said that in a reflex action he delivered a backhanded slap on her. Douglas said that the woman removed her spectacles and made a report to a senior official of the GPOC. On another occasion, he said, he had been waiting outside the building and was approached by the woman, who was in the company of four men armed with sticks. Douglas said he recognised two of the four men as having worked with him as conductors during the days when he had been a mini-bus driver. He said that one of the four men had questioned him as to why he hit the woman and that he had responded that she had hit him first. Douglas claimed, some members of a 20-strong crowd, blocking the GPOC entrance, had called out that he (Douglas) had hit first because he had been trying to break the strike. At this, he said, the men ordered the woman to slap him, which she did. When yesterday's hearing concluded, Justice Carl Singh indicated that the next sitting will be on Thursday. On that day, the commission will hear submissions from Chairman of the Georgetown Hospital's Interim Management Committee, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, as it turns its attention to incidents affecting that institution.
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