Sattaur says Kaieteur News publishing of emails is “abominable and obnoxious”

Sattaur says Kaieteur News publishing of emails is “abominable and obnoxious”

While not admitting or denying that alleged email exchanges between himself, Former President Jagdeo and Attorney General Anil Nandlall that have been published by the Kaieteur News are authentic and were sent by him, the Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority, Khurshid Sattaur believes the Guyanese public should be alarmed over the move by the newspapers to publish the emails.

In a Tuesday afternoon telephone interview with News Source, Mr. Sattaur said he is concerned about the decision by  Kaieteur News to publish the emails which show tax and income information for a number of media houses being sent to the former President and forwarded to the Attorney General allegedly by the Commissioner General.

Mr. Sattaur told News Source that “I am concerned and I think that the Guyanese public needs to be duly alarmed about this and for people like the Kaieteur News to be doing things like this, is extremely abominable and obnoxious. They are the ones who are saying that you must not leak information and they are engaging in the very same double standard practice”.

The Commissioner General added that “your email might be leaked tomorrow, you might be the person whose email is out there tomorrow”

Kaieteur News in its Monday edition reported on an alleged plot that it says was being orchestrated to ensure destruction of the newspapers. The media house in its report carried copies of alleged emails that were allegedly sent by the GRA boss and which highlights the income, tax payment and other financial information for a number of media houses.

According to the newspaper report, the emails were sent to former President Bharrat Jagdeo and Attorney General Anil Nandlall. Both Jagdeo and Nandlall have been quiet on the issue since the alleged email exchanges were published.

When asked directly whether he was admitting that the emails featured in the newspapers were sent by him, Mr. Sattaur said “no, no, we are not talking about emails sent by anybody here”. He said he believes he is being targeted by the Kaieteur News for doing his job and for launching an investigation into the use of two vehicles  by the Kaieteur News owner and his wife that were brought into Guyana by two remigrants under the remigrant scheme.

“I knew the Kaieteur News would come up with something about information being leaked about them. But  have you checked that information Gordon? That information has nothing on Kaieteur News. You check and see and you will see that under Kaieteur News, everything is deleted”, Sattaur said, adding that “so whatever information was transmitted by me or whoever did it, deleted it first, so Kaieteur News’ information was not compromised”.

In the listing of financial information about media houses, the information regarding Kaieteur News has the word “deleted” under the heading in one of the alleged emails that was allegedly sent by the Commissioner General to the former President.

Sattaur said he has no time to argue about emails since he prefers to argue about what he sees as an obsession by the Kaieteur News in “attacking” him.  He said that he is convinced that it all comes down to the GRA investigating the links between the Kaieteur News owner and the two vehicles that were imported by two remigrants under the remigrant scheme. Sattaur said the court will bring justice in that matter.

The Owner of the Kaieteur News Glen Lall has denied any wrongdoing with regard to the use of the two vehicles by himself and his wife. He said for security reasons he asked the owners of the vehicles, who are friends of his, to use the vehicles and they allowed that. The owners still live in Guyana and the vehicles when seized by the Revenue Authority were in the possession of the son of the owners.

Lall is convinced that the GRA is being used to go after him and his business because of his constant reporting of alleged corrupt acts being facilitated by the Government of Guyana. The Donald Ramotar administration has always  denied the charge.

The Alliance For Change on Tuesday afternoon called for the immediate removal of Khurshid Sattaur  as the Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority in wake of the Kaieteur News revelations and the information that was allegedly sent in the alleged emails.

 

Filed:  23rd September 2014

 

 

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