The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has criticized the government for the appointment of ‘party hacks’ on the new National Communications Network (NCN) and the Guyana Chronicle boards saying that Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo had backpedalled on his promise to professionalise the state media.
In a statement, the opposition party referred to a quote Nagamootoo reportedly made where he said that he was not going to put party hacks on the boards just to draw stipends for not working but to do party propaganda.
“This statement rings hollow, especially since both the boards of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited (GNNL) and the National Communications Network Incorporated (NCN) are dominated by political hacks who were on the APNU+AFC List of Candidates or are closely associated with the Granger administration,” the party said.
It named the Prime Minister’s Director of Public Information Imran Khan, who sits on both boards and who was a candidate for the APNU+AFC coalition, as one such person. It also pointed out that Chair of the Chronicle board Jean La Rose and board members Tabitha Sarabo and Patricia Woolford were also candidates for the APNU+AFC. Two other Chronicle board members, Ruel Johnson and Scheherazade Ishoof Khan were also singled out as being open supporters of the coalition.
The PPP also said that in addition to Imran Khan, others with links to the coalition on the NCN board include Director of Public Communications Mark Archer who was an APNU+AFC candidate, Kojo McPherson, who it said was a known supporter of the APNU+AFC, and Chair Bishwa Panday, who, according to the PPP, is a known financier of the APNU+AFC elections campaign and relative of Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan
“The duplicitous nature of the APNU+AFC is being unravelled daily, as one election promise after another is being thrown out the window,” the opposition party said.
The new board members received their instruments to serve on Tuesday.