GFC, GGMC should publish tax earnings

GFC, GGMC should publish tax earnings
Kaieteur News, 16 September 2007

Dear Editor,

In your extracts from a GINA report on revenue collection by the Guyana
Forestry Commission (GFC), captioned “GFC revenue collection has
improved significantly - Singh”, Kaieteur News, 11 September 2007,
there are claims about progress which echo reports of reform of the
GFC's accounting system from some years ago.

Still, better late than never. Like other statements recently made by
the GFC Commissioner (for example, ITTO Tropical Forestry Update 17 (2)
2007 pages 16-17 on legality assurance), there are notes on the
development of procedures but almost nothing of putting these
procedures into practice. I suggest, Mr Editor, that the GFC, and also
the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC), sign up to the
international Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI – see
www.eitransparency.org) which “supports improved governance in
resource-rich countries through the verification and full publication
of company payments and government revenues from oil, gas, and mining.
The Initiative works to build multi-stakeholder partnerships in
developing countries in order to increase the accountability of
governments.” A multi-donor trust fund administered by the World Bank
helps signatories to conform to these reporting standards.

EITI procedures should appeal to the GFC because the revision of the
GFC Act, passed by the National Assembly in its last session in August
2007, although not yet signed by the President, makes more explicit the
need for audit of GFC accounts.

This proposal would support my call which you captioned ‘Three Asian
loggers benefited from the waiver of $325M in 2006', Kaieteur News, 13
September 2007.

The GFC is notorious for the variety and complexity of its taxes, and
for the lack of information about what is billed and what is actually
collected, from whom, how promptly, and what the GFC does about the
large backlogs of unpaid taxes and charges which have been reported.

The Guyana Revenue Authority publishes annually a list of the tax
incentives granted to individually named enterprises in support of
investment, so with this precedent why is there not more uniformity
across government in disclosure of taxes levied and paid? EITI is a
well developed system administered from a secretariat in Norway .

Subscription to the EITI would help Guyana to counter the poor
international reputation for government financial management noted by
the US State Department and Transparency International.

Mahadeo Kowlessar