“I would like to be consulted, I would like the opposition to be consulted to nominate people to run that enterprise,” said opposition leader, David Granger. He told Stabroek News last week that the opposition coalition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) would like to have a say in identifying a new CEO for the broadcaster as well as in the composition of the board. The opposition leader noted that persons from across the country have been complaining about the quality of information from NCN. “The state has a responsibility to treat all of the regions equitably and this is not happening,” Granger said. He recalled that from the time the tripartite talks between the parties in parliament started, he had raised the matter with President Donald Ramotar.
A new CEO will have to be identified for NCN following the resignation of Mohammed ‘Fuzzy’ Sattaur from the entity last month after a probe into suspected financial irregularities. The board of NCN launched the investigation early last month and Programme Manager Martin 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. He has since been suspended for eight weeks.
The probe into financial irregularities at the state-owned network is continuing, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Dr. Prem Misir has said. Several attempts over the past week and yesterday to contact him on the process to identify a new CEO were futile. NCN’s editor, Michael Gordon is acting CEO in the interim.
Impropriety
The AFC has 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.
Last week, party executive Cathy Hughes said that coming out of the investigations, it has since been learnt that persons at NCN were collecting money on behalf of the company and putting it into their personal bank accounts. “This is tantamount to fraudulent conversion. 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,” she said.
It is not good enough to say that the CEO has resigned and that a senior manager was suspended, Hughes said, adding that NCN as a state owned company was receiving millions of taxpayers’ dollars over the years in annual subventions and people therefore have a right to the full details on what has been happening at NCN.
Hughes emphasized that the party would like to see the report and if there is financial impropriety, the police must do what they have to do. Whoever is culpable need to be dealt with as the law provides, she said.
Additionally, the AFC executive said that the AFC is consulting among its Members of Parliament and seeking legal opinions and advice on how best to address this matter.
Meanwhile, yesterday, the party’s chairman, Khemraj Ramjattan also called for the report on the investigations to be made public.
According to him, the government does not want the report to be made public so that all can see what had occurred for Sattaur to resign and Goolsarran to be suspended. “Obviously the report and the findings…was to the effect that there was some corrupt transaction. There must have been,” he said. He declared that because it was the government’s “boys” they do not want the matter to go further.
Ramjattan added that the board should ensure that the report is made public and it should also be sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions and the police for further investigation and criminal prosecution if it has reached that stage.
In terms of identifying a new CEO for NCN, Ramjattan said that the AFC would like a say in this. He said that they want the board to at least indicate the criteria and the person who would fit the criteria. He said that NCN should be an institution that should gain the confidence of all political parties especially in the context of the opposition’s contention that it is a pro-PPP institution. According to Ramjattan, it is a “lovely opportunity” for inclusiveness to be demonstrated.
