In April, the opposition effected over $20 billion in cuts from the budget including subventions for NCN and the Government Information Agency (GINA), citing a lack of transparency and accountability in the explanations for the allocations. The government later moved to restore the amounts through an action in the High Court. Although finding that the National Assembly did not have the power to cut the budget, acting Chief Justice Ian Chang in July, in an interim ruling, said the court could not restore the funds, except for allocations to the Ethnic Relations Commission which is a constitutional agency and entitled to draw directly from the Consolidated Fund.
Later, in the National Assembly in August, the opposition again voted against an allocation of $211.5 million for NCN and GINA. It also voted down the sum of $22.6 million for expenditure on wages and salaries for contracted employees under Office of the President Presidential Advisory and other services.
Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr Roger Luncheon later revealed that despite the cutting of their subventions from the national budget by the opposition, contract workers at the Office of the President and employees at other affected state entities including NCN and GINA have been paid. Observers have said that despite cuts to the subventions for GINA and NCN, both have continued to function in the same way as they had before.
Questioned about the issue recently, Ramjattan said that the party would keep on pursuing the demand for equitable and balanced access and reporting and would be educating the public “that this injustice is wretched and wrong.” He said they will also take the issue to the various international and regional institutions and the subvention of NCN could be cut again next year.
In September, AFC chairman, Nigel Hughes said the party will consider other avenues to effect change to NCN and GINA given that the subvention cuts seem to have done little to reform programming.
