A month after President Donald Ramotar said that he planned to discuss the findings of an audit into alleged financial improprieties at the National Communications Network (NCN) with the persons involved before saying what decisions will be made, it is not clear that this has been done.
“I won’t want to offer any comment. Sorry, no comment,” NCN’s suspended Programme Manager Martin Goolsarran told Stabroek News when contacted yesterday on whether he had met with the president.
“It’s with me. I don’t think it’s ethical to talk about it here, at this point in time, since I haven’t spoken to those who have been involved in it as yet,” Ramotar said on January 11, when asked for an update into the probe.
The NCN Board had launched an investigation last June into suspected financial irregularities at the network. Chief Executive Officer Mohammed ‘Fuzzy’ Sattaur subsequently resigned.
Goolsarran was later sent on administrative leave in relation to a $3.9 million cheque made payable to him by telecommunication company GT&T as an incentive for the production team that worked during the company’s jingle and song competition, held between September 2011 and February last year.
Sattaur’s quitting and Goolsarran’s suspension coincided with the resignation of Yog Mahadeo, the then chief executive officer of GT&T.
It was GT&T’s payments to NCN for services that triggered the investigation.
Parmesar Chartered Accountants was hired to carry out a special investigation into the alleged financial irregularities and several breaches were uncovered.
The opposition had previously called for a wider probe into the scandal.
Many observers had questioned why Sattaur was allowed to resign in the middle of a growing scandal. Ramotar had told reporters that Sattaur offered his resignation to him “when you had some of these things in the public and I accepted his resignation.”
The president had also been unable to say why stronger sanctions were not imposed upon Goolsarran.
Goolsarran was initially suspended for eight weeks without pay for allegedly attempting to cover up financial irregularities by pressuring staff to prepare backdated invoices, among other things. The suspension was later extended indefinitely.
