The directors of Telecor, one of the companies controversially allocated radio frequencies last year, are close relatives of Minister of Natural Resources, Robert Persaud, AFC MP Khemraj Ramjattan declared on national television yesterday.
One of the directors is Persaud’s wife Kamini Persaud and the other Ramjattan said is Persaud’s sister Ruth Baljit. Ramjattan was speaking on Christopher Ram’s television programme `Plain Talk’.
While relatives of government officials are not usually barred from applying for consideration in relation to state assets or contracts, observers say that these processes have to be transparent and clearly above board.
Critics argue this process failed the test on several grounds: former President Bharrat Jagdeo’s allocations just prior to demitting office in November 2011 were never explained and the process proceeded in contravention of a promise Jagdeo himself had made not to allot frequencies until a new broadcast authority was in place. Other applicants for radio licences and frequencies including the publishers of Stabroek News and Kaieteur News and broadcaster Enrico Woolford never received replies to their applications or explanations as to why they were not considered.
Telecor &Cultural Broadcasting Inc, as one of the allottees attracted particular attention as the frequencies were assigned in the name of the Deputy Permanent Secretary in Persaud’s Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment, Omar Lochan. Questions were raised as to the appropriateness of a senior ministry official being assigned five frequencies and whether he had standing to be considered for these. When Lochan was contacted two weeks ago by Stabroek News for comment he said “At the appropriate time we will disclose [these plans].
I don’t want to comment any [further].” Lochan was listed in Prime Minister Sam Hind’s answer in Parliament as the contact person for Telcor and Cultural Broadcasting Inc., which was awarded five radio frequencies, namely 89.7, 90.1, 91.5, 104.9 and 103.3.
Minister Persaud, when asked by Stabroek News two weeks ago about the allocations of the frequencies to an official in his Ministry, refused to comment. This newspaper also asked him whether he was connected to Telecor and Cultural Broadcasting Company and whether it was not a conflict of interest that the Deputy Permanent Secretary in his Ministry was the person named as the contact person for this entity. In response, the Minister said, “I have no comment to make.”
Ramjattan yesterday released to the media an application under the Companies Act of Guyana to restore the name Telecor and Cultural Broadcasting Inc to the companies register. It had been struck off the register in June of 2011.
The application for restoration was made on October 4, 2011, shortly before the frequencies were assigned by Jagdeo. The directors of the company were listed as Persaud’s wife, Kamini Persaud, who is also the niece of former President Jagdeo, and Ruth Baljit of a New York, USA address.
Observers say the disclosure of the directorship will pile pressure on the Ramotar administration over the manner in which the frequencies were assigned considering that close relatives of a current minister were recipients.
There have been growing calls for the Ramotar administration to rescind the awards of the frequencies made by Jagdeo in 2011 given the secrecy and the concerns about conflicts of interest and favouritism.
Speaker of the National Assembly Raphael Trotman recently described as “obscene” the awarding of the radio licences and frequencies.
Both the Jagdeo and Ramotar administrations had faced a barrage of criticism over the November 2011 awards outside of the new broadcast legislation however, the flak escalated after a question in Parliament in the name of AFC MP Cathy Hughes produced answers from Hinds last month which had never before been provided by the administration.
Critics have said there was no acceptable reason for former President Jagdeo to have made these awards outside of the framework of the legislation except for wanting to ensure that his choices got licences while others were excluded. Despite the importance of the awarding of the radio licences – after the PPP/C had kept a monopoly in place for 19 years – there had been no formal announcement of the decisions. Dribs and drabs of information in November 2011 from the Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon were all that were provided to the media. Some names of awardees were provided by Dr Luncheon but there was no information at all on who had screened the applications, under which law they were considered, what were the criteria for consideration and who had made the final decision.
‘No criteria’
Experts with whom this newspaper had spoken to two weeks ago had said that the government seems to have taken advantage of grey areas of the Broadcast Act to have its way.
“The real problem that we have is that there are no criteria of any kind established under the Broadcast Act,” said veteran broadcaster Kit Nascimento. He added that the Act is insufficient in this light and needs regulations which will govern the criteria and requirements by which one acquires a licence to broadcast.
“You have a very limited spectrum and a competition for the privilege of using it… there must be very specific criteria set out,” he said, pointing to the need for public hearings to determine the merits or demerits’ of applications for licences.
Noting that former President Jagdeo used his authority as Minister of Information prior to the enactment of the Broadcast Act, Nascimento said that the process was not a transparent one.
New Guyana Company Limited – the publishers of the PPP-aligned Mirror newspaper – was also assigned channels 91.1, 90.7, 90.5, 105.9 and 105.3. PPP/C Member of Parliament Dharamkumar Seeraj, was listed as the contact person for these frequencies. Stabroek News has been unable to speak to him about his plans. There are usually strict rules governing whether a Member of Parliament can be connected to the quest for public resources, which the frequencies are.
When this newspaper asked Speaker Trotman to comment on the perceived conflict of interest which arises in the case of Seeraj being a Member of Parliament, he said that such a situation is not clearly addressed in any code of conduct. But he said that it is a phenomenon that should be frowned upon. “It does raise eyebrows,” he said.
