A Board of Trustees has been formed by the regional administration of Region 10 in order to be eligible to apply for a television licence to the Guyana National Broadcast-ing Authority.
Budget debates and consideration of estimates for the last two weeks hampered the planned meetings between the government and Region 10. However, following the last set of discussions, the sides are closer to finalising the choices for chairpersons of the two major committees coming out of agreement between the government and the region. This is according to Chairman of Region 10 Sharma Solomon who spoke with this newspaper yesterday.
“We were to meet in the second week of April to talk about the television station but we did not meet because of the budget [debates and consideration of estimates],” he said.
“Now that the debates are over and the budget has been approved I am quite certain we will start back the meetings. Our new approach with regards to the television station was to provide information that the government said is required and for the government’s part they are to ensure that the licence is granted,” he said.
He said that the region so far has acquired all of the technical paraphernalia to get the station operational. Solomon noted that the site construction is at an advanced stage and all material has been acquired at a cost to the region. “We have formed a board of trustees and we are also getting legal advice with regard to its operation,” said Solomon.
The Broadcast Act states had stated that a licence could only be issued to a company incorporated or continued under the Companies Act, or a trust, hence the need for the region to form the board of trustees.
Asked what the latest position of government was with regard to the television station for Linden and its licence, Hinds had said some weeks ago that the region must apply for such a licence. However, he said that it is his understanding that the region feels the government should grant the licence as a matter of course.
Solomon said: “We were told by the government that they would consider our position but they still encouraged us to send in our application to the Guyana National Broadcasting Authority.”
Then acting Cabinet Secretary Gail Teixeira had said at a press conference earlier in the year that government could not be expected to sidestep the legal and technical requirements under the National Frequency Management Unit (NFMU) regulations and the Broadcasting Act and grant a television licence “at the wave of a wand.” According to her, government assured the region that it would facilitate their application as far as possible, in accordance with the law.
Technical and economic committees
With regard to the committees established as part of an agreement between the Government and Region 10, Solomon said that Charles Ceres is the most favoured candidate to become Chairman of the Technical Review Committee. The former Chairman of this committee, Narvon Persaud, resigned the position just weeks into the appointment.
The committees are all part of the August 21, 2012 agreement between government and the regional administration of Region 10, following weeks of unrest in Linden over electricity tariffs during which three protesters were killed.
During March, Prime Minister Sam Hinds had stated that government and the Region 10 administration had reached agreement on the Chairman of the Economic Review Committee but not the Technical Review Committee.
For the chair of the technical committee, government had nominated John Lewis, who has worked in the bauxite industry in Linden for a number of years and has historical knowledge of the industry. However, the region was said to have been in favour of Earl B John, a consultant at the Sandra Jones Associates Consultancy firm.
Earlier, in February, Solomon had said that there seemed to be consensus for University of Guyana lecturer Joycelyn Williams to be the chair of the economic committee as neither side had any objection to her holding the position.
The Land Selection Committee, another coming out of the August 21, 2012 agreement, has been established, but its terms of reference and structure of management are still to be submitted. Issues regarding this committee and the Linden Commis-sion of Inquiry are also scheduled to be raised whenever the sides do meet.
