December 7, 1998
Arthur Trott, Chief of Customs has declared that Suriname was caught in the vise of commercial
fraud. This involves everything from T-shirts to cars. All goods are being "under-invoiced". Trott
stated further that what so far had been discovered has proven to be just the tip of the iceberg.
Trott confessed that the situation had been underestimated by the customs. A large scale
investigation in this grand fraud affair is at present being carried out by both the police and the
customs and has already resulted in the arrests of 7 well known businessmen with fines amounting
to half a billion in guilders. According to Trott commercial fraud is an international phenomenon
that made its debut in Suriname in the early 80's when most Suriname businessmen made personal
contact with the suppliers. This has created an opening for fraudulent dealings. Suppliers were
compelled to under invoice their their products or lose out on the deal. It has been reported in
some cases where blank invoices were sent to the importer who then filled them out to his
conveniance and then presented them to the customs as if they had come from the supplier.
Another case is that of the "paper firms" and the P.O. Boxes firms abroad that belong to Suriname
businessmen who use this way to buy the goods from the suppliers and then sell them to their
firms here in Suriname using every trick of the trade to increase their profits. This is sometimes
discovered when the unfair concurence that is the result of this is brought to light. The local
customs have been advised by their American collegues to start a partnership with the bonafide
suppliers in an effort to out root the malafide trade, but this is easier said than done since you do
not know which supplier you can trust. However the customs are looking for a way to form an
international alliance to fight this problem.
Vice President Pretaap Radhakishun leaves today for Miami with a delegation to attend the 22nd
Miami Conference on the Caribbean and Latin America. Leaders of governments and private
enterprise from the Western Block will contribute to make the decisions made around the Free
Trade Area of the America's a realization. The conference brings together 1500 leaders of 50
countries to exchange the latest information over the development of trade and management.
Tops of government from the Caribbean region, Central and South America together with
officials form the IDB, OAS, CARICOM and IICA. Tomorrow will mark the opening of the 5-days conference. On the agenda are dicsussions over the FTAA, facilities of trade and issues of
the World Trade Organizations, also the role of Cuba will be discussed.
The New Front Leaders do not see a solution in the dialogue of President Wijdenbosch for the
immense problems that the country is facing at this moment. This is stated in a press report sent
out by this political combination. The New Front leaders believe that the President would do the
nation a good service by resigning and giving the responsibilities of ruling the country over to an
Interim Cabinet hereby granting the Suriname people a perception of change and prosperity. The
leaders of the Front combination have had a discussion with the President last week-end.
Wijdenbosch's referrence to solutions by the Social Economic Board and the National Assembly
are totally non acceptable. The President admitted that there is are some problems between the
government and some groups of the society which he had underestimated. The leaders also said
that they were still waiting on a reply from him for the letter sent to him by the Joint forces group.
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