Continued from last week
Introduction
Last week we sought to conclude our review of the financial statements of NCN for the three years from 2004 to 2006. Readers will recall that NCN recorded losses in each of the three years but massaged each year’s loss into a profit as a result of subventions from the state. Such operating subventions came to an abrupt end with President Ramotar’s assent to the legislation withdrawing $81 million of proposed subvention although an amount of $65 million has been approved under the Office of the President for capital expenditure for NCN.
I commented last week on the poor quality of the information contained in the audited financial statements as well as on what appears to be unacceptably poor audit quality by Mr Deodat Sharma, long acting Auditor General. NCN does not show segmented information derived from its distinct operations such as Television and Radio, and it was not therefore possible to analyse the information presented. Using the revenue numbers for 2006 and applying available television hours only,