Ramjattan, Harmon deny assuring Sattaur of job continuity

Last Updated on Monday, 25 January 2016, 6:22 by Denis Chabrol

Two senior members of the APNU+AFC Administration have denied having assured outgoing Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) of continuity in his post at the tax agency.

Khursid Sattaur in a statement to the media on Thursday afternoon declared that his dismissal was contrary to assurances given to him by the Minister of State, Joseph Harmon and Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan that he had nothing to be worried about, he subsequently saw certain maneuvers that he would not disclose.

“I was given all assurances from both the Minister of the Presidency and the Minister of Public Security that there was nothing to be worried about concerning continuing my services with the GRA….However, within the GRA there were many strange developments that belied or contradicted what was communicated to me by the politicians aforementioned. Professional ethics precludes me from disclosing any of these matters,” he said.

But both Ramjattan and Harmon have denied any such conversations with Sattaur and indicate that they might have been misinterpreted by the Commissioner General.

Ramjattan told Demerara Waves in a recent interview that said that “I did not give him my assurance, he is n not my employee.

“He was trying to tell me that he understands that he is going to be fired and at that stage I never understood that he was going to be fired and I said please don’t…we will deal with those issues in the end. I know of nothing of the sort,” said Ramjattan who claimed to be “personal friends” with Sattaur.

Meanwhile, Harmon told Demerara Waves that he was working closely with the Commissioner General on two projects.“How can I give him assurance like that? I don’t have that authority to give that assurance,” said Harmon.

Nevertheless, the State Minister explained that he felt Sattaur had something to offer.
“I felt that he had something to offer, he understood what we were dealing with and I told him I was prepared to work with him. But I could not determine what the board was doing,” he said.

The GRA’s Board Chairman, Rawle Lucas last week announced that a decision has been taken to fire Sattaur because he had disclosed taxpayer information of a Guyanese to someone else and that he had a data safe at his home.

Sattaur has denied those accusations, saying that he merely provided information to an unnamed Ambassador about an embassy staffer who had been engaged in rogue activities and that data safe had been empty since the back-up has been moved to another location about five years.