The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) will be providing incentives to whistleblowers who can help them prosecute individuals who rob the nation of billions in yearly revenue.

This was disclosed recently by senior officials who said that the initiative will begin this year. The officials declined to divulge details of the plan, due to its sensitive nature.

The whistle-blowing initiative and other efforts to break the back of illegal activities are an about-turn in GRA’s Law Enforcement and Investigation Division (LEID), which, over the past ten years, has been sorely criticized for underperforming.

But since August of last year, the department appears to have been stepping its game up. GRA officials confirmed with this publication that revenue collection has increased due to LEID’s improved performance.

Kaieteur News was also able to confirm that the Division will be strengthened for 2018 with the necessary human resources as well as equipment to boost its work. With the revamp that is expected to place, GRA officials confirmed that revenue growth is expected to “surpass expectations for 2018.”

It was also revealed that LEID will be stepping up its efforts to bring in more information on illegal activities, through the ‘whistleblower’ programme and other initiatives.

The revenue authority also made several strides in improving tax administration systems.

(KAIETEUR NEWS)