Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA), Rawle Lucas, has expressed gross dissatisfaction with the state of the building that currently houses the GRA’s headquarters at a rental cost of $60 million annually.

Mr. Lucas on Friday said the environment in which employees are currently strained to work in, is of grave concern to the Board.

To this end, he disclosed that discussions have reopened on the GRA headquarters being moved to a location that was previously earmarked along the East Coast of Demerara.

According to the newly installed Chairman, the $60 million Camp Street building is not providing the Authority with the full functionality it had hoped for. He said apart from the physical limitation to space, there is also the situation of the building leaking intolerably whenever it rains with other physical setbacks that threaten the health of staff members. “I certainly don’t want any staff that I have responsibility for to be functioning in such an environment,” Mr. Lucas told News Source.

He reminded that prior to the organisation moving to the Camp Street building in a bid to make the entity physically integrated, the management had toiled with the idea of moving to the location along the East Coast. That location was later identified by the previous PPP government as the spot where the Sun and Sand Hotel should have been constructed.

Mr. Lucas believes that the opportunity has presented itself again and says the Board is inclined to take advantage of the opportunity and construct a new headquarters for the GRA within the shortest possible time.

The GRA Chairman believes that such a move will involve a degree of legal and other financial implications since the plot of land was leased by the state to local construction firm – BK International.

He said the Board is committed and would not be unreasonable to providing the best environment for all GRA workers to function within.

Mr. Lucas cautioned that any move to a new location will have to ensure that all departments of GRA are housed in one location as the Authority will remain integrated in its operations.

In July, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure had dispatched a team to assess the GRA head office after a tremor caused cracks in several parts of the building.

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