In an interview with Stabroek News on Thursday, Sattaur said the GRA has been doing a lot in the money-laundering fight, but not a lot of it gets reported because the agency is sworn to secrecy in these matters. He said the work is done in a silent but effective manner.
Sattaur said though the GRA's core activities deal with the administration of Customs and Income Tax laws, it has been placing emphasis on the operations of its enforcement units, auditing and investigations.
He said the enforcement unit is now staffed with over 50 people and the aim is to have a complement of over 100 staff members. According to the Commissioner General, there has been more internal control and the unit has become more independent.
This is a part of a programme called Total Revenue Integrated Processing System (TRIPS) provided through Crown Agents in the UK. This system enables all government systems to be managed under a single umbrella. According to the Crown Agents website, the system develops taxpayer profiles with a unique number for all tax and all revenue liabilities, thereby painting a complete picture of all registered taxpayers. In addition to taxpayer identification, TRIPS provides revenue accounting, customs controls, intelligence and risk management, audit and assessment, debt management, management information and e-government.
TRIPS will allow for taxpayers and the revenue authority to interact directly via the Internet, allowing taxpayers to register for taxes, submit declarations and payments electronically, access public information and enquire on the status of accounts, or the progress of goods through Customs.
The software, Sattaur said, will be able to detect instances of money being 'splashed' in the construction or acquisition of large properties. He said the system is designed to prompt the GRA when such telling information surfaces.
The Commissioner Gen-eral is perusing the 49 anti-money laundering and terrorist financing recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which are to be used in the preparation of new anti money laundering legislation to come into being during the second half of this year.
Sources within the Min-istry of Legal Affairs said legal draughtsmen are in the process of putting the recommendations into legislative language for the new bill.
And as part of its mandate, the new legislation would seek to have greater control over money transfer operations as it integrates the nine recommendations against terrorist financing. The law will mandate money transfer companies to get originator information.
The bringing of this new legislation into effect will be the force giving 'teeth' to the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) that had been set up to monitor and apprehend those businesses and individuals involved in filtering proceeds of crime into the economy.
The reporting agencies in the fight against money laundering are the Bank of Guyana, the Office of the Commissioner of Insurance and the GRA among others. These agencies would have to sound the alarm in the event that suspicious activity is detected.
The recommendations in relation to the reporting of suspicious transactions and compliance state that if a financial institution suspects or has reasonable grounds to suspect that funds are the proceeds of a criminal activity, or are related to terrorist financing, it should be required, directly by law or regulation, to report promptly its suspicions to the FIU.
They state too that financial institutions, their directors, officers and employees should be protected by legal provisions from criminal and civil liability for breach of any restriction on disclosure of information imposed by contract or by any legislative, regulatory or administrative provision, if they report their suspicions in good faith to the FIU, even if they did not know precisely what the underlying criminal activity was, and regardless of whether illegal activity actually occurred.
According to the recommendations, the law should prohibit these persons from disclosing the fact that a suspicious transaction or related information is being reported to the FIU.
Autor: Johann Earle
Quelle: Stabroek News, 18.04.2006
