APNU will be approaching the Auditor-General regarding the breaches uncovered by an accounting firm during a probe of the state broadcaster, NCN, and also believes that the police should be called in to investigate.
“It is a mystery to me why the police has not been called in on this matter,” said Chairman of APNU, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine yesterday. “The police should be called in to take action,” he emphasized. The board of NCN launched an investigation in June into suspected financial irregularities at the network. A report was done by Parmesar Chartered Accountants and this uncovered several breaches at NCN and revealed that former Chief Executive Officer Mohammed Sattaur and Programme Manager Martin Goolsarran allegedly attempted to cover-up financial irregularities by pressuring staff to prepare backdated invoices, among other issues.
Sattaur has since resigned while Goolsarran was suspended for eight weeks without pay. Sattaur has declined to respond to questions from Stabroek News on the findings in the report.
Questions have arisen as to why police have not been called in to investigate and AFC leader, Khemraj Ramjattan has said that the duo should face charges in the courts.
Yesterday, Chairman of the NCN Board, Prem Misir declined to comment on the matter.
Dr. Roopnaraine said that APNU will be approaching the Auditor-General to point out what they believe are breaches of the law and also “revealed criminal behaviour” in relation to finance where there has been violation of the law that has been uncovered by the probe.
He said that the police should definitely be called in to investigate. “APNU would like to see a complete reform of NCN,” he added, listing access to programming as one of the issues that APNU has faced with the state broadcaster.
A leaked copy of the Parmesar report, given to Stabroek News by Ramjattan, who said it was given to him by a high-ranking government official said that Goolsarran, in the presence of Sattaur, in June, requested that the finance manager prepare an invoice to be dated January 2012 to cover production costs for the GT&T Jingle and Song competition for the period November 2011 to January 2012. The amount of the invoice was for $3.6 million but the employee refused to prepare the invoice “as no Job Order was given to her for these activities.” The employee told the investigators that Sattaur and Goolsarran made “a few requests” to her to prepare the invoice.
After the finance manager refused, the report said, Sattaur and Goolsarran instructed another employee to prepare a Job Order for the GT&T competition production services and forward it to the Finance Department for the preparation of an invoice. This employee also refused to carry out the instruction. “The two employees reported that they felt that it was unethical to prepare a Job Order that should have been prepared in the normal course of business since January 2012 and submitted to the Finance Department for invoicing in June 2012,” the report said.
‘Personal account’
It also said that a copy of an invoice dated 10 January 2012 with Goolsarran’s home address was obtained. This invoice was addressed to GT&T and represented production costs for the Jingle and Song Competition for November 2, 2011 to January 6, 2012. The report pointed out that the invoice amount was $3,620,000 which was the same amount and services that the finance manager was asked to prepare the invoice for in June 2012 and backdate to January 2012.
Goolsarran admitted that he received on two occasions, amounts totalling $3,930,000 in December 2011 from GT&T for production services. “These amounts were deposited in his personal bank account. He claimed that the $3,930,000 was paid to HJTV on two occasions for their services,” the report said.
Among other things, the report said that a number of functions of other staff/departments were usurped by Sattaur and Goolsarran. It said that that the two officers entered into arrangements with GT&T for the Jingle and Song Competition without a written agreement and further, this event was not referred to the ‘Rates and Special Events Committee,’ which has responsibility for such events. The two officials also executed a subcontract with HJTV without a written agreement.
