President orders immediate action on 'remigrant' irregularities report
--- copies sent to AG, DPP
Guyana Chronicle
March 11, 2004

Related Links: Articles on remigration
Letters Menu Archival Menu


PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo has ordered immediate action on the report he commissioned into irregularities in the administration of the granting of duty-free concessions to re-migrants under a re-migrant vehicle scheme.

The Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority has handed over the report of the investigation ordered by the President to the Department of the Auditor General (AG) and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DDP).

The report deals solely with the duty free concessions granted to 86 re-migrants in August of 2003.

It identifies 31 of those duty free concessions granted as having satisfied all of the qualifying criteria.

The report has identified a series of deliberate acts by public officers who it says violated criteria for the grant of the duty free concessions to re-migrants.

It also identifies negligence by other public officers who authorized the grant of duty free concessions, but leaves unanswered the actual duration and extent of the fraudulent activity.

The presentation of the report has led to the following directives being issued by President Jagdeo with immediate effect:

1. Submission of the reports to the Director of Public Prosecution and the Auditor General's Department

2. Seizures of all vehicles granted under questionable circumstances and cancellation of other concessions

3. Extension of investigation into the access of previous duty free concessions granted to remigrants before August 2003.