GRA seeking proposals for new HQ at Pattensen

The Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) yesterday requested proposals for the design and supervision of the construction of a new headquarters building at Plantation Pattensen, Greater Georgetown.

Proposals have to be submitted no later than

October 12, 2021 at 9 am, according to a notice in yesterday’s Sunday Stabroek. A new HQ for the GRA has been floated for a number of years. The Camp Street building currently in use has experienced a range of problems and traffic congestion has become a major issue.

In 2015, the GRA received expressions of interest for the designing of a new headquarters at Liliendaal but the location was not identified.

The designs were submitted just short of three years after the GRA moved into its Camp Street premises in a much-criticised deal. It saw the tax agency paying a monthly rent of around $5M to the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) after the then PPP/C government spent $227M to retrofit the building for the revenue agency. The arrangement had been seen as a way of helping the NIS to recover from bad investment deals. The building was previously owned by CLICO (Guyana) Inc., which had a large sum outstanding to the NIS when it collapsed.

During his August, 2015 Budget presentation, Finance Minister Winston Jordan had lamented the poor state of the current headquarters, saying it was not fit for occupation.

It is unclear what became of the proposals that were submitted in 2015.