| … cites ludicrous questions such as sexual preference, alcohol use Deputy Head of the Customs and Trade Administration, Ingrid Griffith,Jerseys From China, and 13 other employees of the Guyana Revenue Authority, have refused to undergo polygraph testing mandated by the Government.They said that their refusal stemmed from the nature of the questions being asked. They also said that the testing should be done from the top down.When contacted last evening, Commissioner General Khurshid Sattaur said that the polygraph testing is targeting those employees who interface with the public on a daily basis.He said that such officers work on the wharves or process import documents. He said that the enforcement officers are also a part of the people to undergo polygraph testing.When asked why Ms Griffith, who does not interface with the public on a daily basis should undergo the test, he suggested that she could be a “red herring”.He said that there are corrupt officers who have cost the GRA millions of dollars each year, but to ensure the accuracy of the testing there is also need to have people who may be above suspicion.When asked why he and his deputy,Wholesale NBA Jerseys China, Clement Sealey, have not been taking the tests, he said that he worked very hard to ensure a clean image and an untainted reputation.He added that their positions are determined by statute, and as such they should not be compared to obviously corrupt officers.Mr Sattaur accused the press of trying to protect the Customs officers by reporting on the polygraph tests. He was critical of an article in yesterday’s issue that stipulated the norms of polygraph tests and their subsequent use.This newspaper was told that Ms Griffith and the 13 other employees were summoned to the Office of the President by way of letter,Cheap China Jerseys, which stated that the Government has identified and has retained the services of expert polygraph-testing personnel,Jerseys NFL Wholesale, and was seeking to have a selected number of people undergo the testing.Upon arrival at the Office of the President on Friday morning, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon introduced the staffers to the technician who explained the process.Things took a turn for the worse when the employees were shown a questionnaire. They were taken aback by some of the questions which bore no semblance to anything related to the GRA.One of the questions that the employees would have had to answer pertained to the sexual preference of the individual,Wholesale Stitched Jerseys, while another sought to find out if the individual was at any time involved in any unlawful sexual activity.Another question that the staffers refused to entertain was whether they had at any time consumed alcohol, smoked cannabis or ingested cocaine.Still another question sought to find out if the subject was ever part of a gang or group that had at any time tried to overthrow the Government.There was also another question seeking to find out whether the individual being questioned had ever taken anything from a colleague’s locker.It was recently announced that the polygraph tests would be extended to GRA officers and police ranks among others to end corruption.In Guyana, no legislation provides for the use of polygraph tests, but Sattaur said that the tests are necessary to weed out corrupt officers.Asked about the cost of the test,Wholesale China Jerseys, Sattaur said that he was unaware of this, but that it might be in the interest of the Government to spend $30 million to save more.The Guyana Government, however, has already fired the top brass of the country’s Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) for failing polygraph tests.Policemen and airport guards have already been tested. |
