Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon on Wednesday said that three criteria were considered when granting radio licences and if “government-friendly individuals” met them then their applications would have been granted.
Responding to questions from the media, he explained that the President, in the absence of the Guyana National Broadcasting Authority, has the responsibility for issuing these licenses.
According to the law, he noted, applicants must be fit and proper; must have the financial means and must have the technical skills; and requirements that allow you to obtain spectrum access.
“I am pretty certain that those considerations weighed on the president when those decisions were being made,” he said.
Dr. Luncheon noted too that the court ruling and its implications also influenced the final decision. “There is, of course, the requirement that these people, these entities, would have made applications and when the ruling of the court was made in that context to deliberate and to examine these applications that ruling and its implications also had an influence on the decisions that were made,” he explained.
Asked for a response to reports that those awarded were “government-friendly individuals,” he said “If government friends are financially secure, if they have the technical means and are fit and proper… I can’t imagine they would overpopulate the list of recipients.”
Meanwhile, the Alliance For Change (AFC), during a press conference on Wednesday, called on President Donald Ramotar, as the Minister of Information, to divulge the names of all those persons who were “gifted radio broadcast licenses.”
The opposition party noted that “it is known that former president Bharrat Jagdeo approved an undisclosed number of applicants just prior to him giving up office.” It was noted that the broadcast spectrum is the property of the people of Guyana and citizens have a right to know who will be using it.
The AFC also called on Ramotar to disclose the processes used to sift applications and the criteria used to identify the best qualified.
