The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) is building its capacity to monitor the local oil and gas sector and while international help with training has been forthcoming from organisations like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the tax agency continues to grapple with its staff being lured away with the promise of greater pay from oil companies.
GRA’s Commissioner General, Godfrey Statia, was called before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today.
During the meeting, Statia was asked for an update on GRA’s efforts to get enough qualified staff to oversee Guyana’s rapidly growing oil and gas sector.
“We do not have the full complement of staff. We’re working assiduously to get the full complement of staff… As we know, we have a depository of skills in Guyana. We have even increased pay for persons in that capacity for them not to leave but what we have seen is that as we train staff, we lose staff. We have actually lost at least about five staff that we would’ve trained within the past year and they’re all accountants,” Statia explained.
The GRA commissioner identified Stabroek Block co-venturer, CNOOC, as one of the companies that was able to acquire staff from the tax agency.
In fact, Statia said that in some instances employees are offered salaries that eclipse even his salary and the salaries of top officials in his office.
The PAC questioned whether GRA contracts employees to prevent them from leaving.
But according to Statia, he is reluctant to do this since it may affect workers’ attitude to their job.
He explained that the tax body often appeals to workers’ patriotism to prevent them from leaving.
This led to the PAC questioning whether such an approach was viable in the circumstances.
Statia, meanwhile, spoke of their efforts to attract staff for cost recovery audits, as well as the help GRA has been receiving from the International Monetary Fund to train its staff.
