The probe into financial irregularities at the state-owned broadcaster NCN is continuing, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Dr. Prem Misir has said.
The investigation has already seen the resignation of the Chief Executive Officer, Mohammed ‘Fuzzy’ Sattaur, and the suspension for eight weeks of the Programme Manager Martin Goolsarran. Opposition party AFC yesterday called for a full disclosure of the findings of the investigation, while saying that persons guilty of impropriety should not be protected from facing the law.
The board of NCN launched an investigation early last month into suspected financial irregularities at the network and Goolsarran was sent on administrative leave in relation to a $3.9 million cheque made payable to him by telecoms company GT&T as an incentive for the production team that worked during the company’s jingle and song competition, held between September last year and February this year.
“At this point there is nothing really new to report. You have reported and it is known by everyone that irregularities were found,” Misir told Stabroek News on Tuesday. He was tight-lipped about the nature of the irregularities and would only say that the probe is continuing.
Sattaur’s resignation and Goolsarran’s suspension coincided with the resignation of Yog Mahadeo, the Chief Executive Officer of GT&T, whose payments to NCN for services triggered the investigation. That probe has now widened.
The decision to investigate the incentive payment was taken at a meeting by board members to examine how the cutting of the $82 million government subvention to $1 by the combined opposition would affect the company. At the time, board members were also examining a proposal by the management of the company on the way forward, in the light of the cut of the subvention. The board decided to dig deeper on seeing the proposal, since NCN had publicly indicated that most of its revenues come from advertising and that it raked in over $500 million in advertising revenue last year.
‘Cover up’
Meanwhile, the AFC yesterday called for a full disclosure of findings of the NCN investigation, while cautioning against a potential “cover up” to protect employees.
“We do not know the full scope and depth of financial impropriety at NCN, whether it is confined to the revelation of $3 million from GT&T or whether there is more. We suspect, based on the government’s call for the resignation of the CEO, that there is much more,” AFC MP Cathy Hughes told a party news conference yesterday.
“The AFC is calling for full disclosure and that the report of the probe is made public. The AFC strongly believes that there is now a belated cover-up attempt to protect the former Chief Executive Officer and others at NCN from facing the full brunt of the law… It is not good enough to say that the CEO has resigned and that a senior manager was suspended. NCN, as a state-owned company, was receiving millions of taxpayers’ dollars over the years in annual subventions. The people, therefore, have a right to the full details on what has been happening at NCN,” she added.
In the interest of citizens, Hughes stated that the AFC will continue to pursue the matter and consult on possible recourses.
She had earlier said that the investigation of NCN’s financial records vindicated the opposition’s decision to cut the subvention proposed for the entity in the national budget.
