Chairman of the National Communications Network (NCN), Bish Panday says that the state entity’s lack of technical expertise has delayed a determination on the capabilities of uplink equipment recently found on its premises.
The discovery of the equipment is seen as important as the government had contracted out uplink services for NCN’s Guyana Learning Channel since 2010.
Panday told Stabroek News “NCN has a problem with technical people, you could call it wherewithal and I am still trying to get technical advice on the way forward. The equipment is there, I don’t have in house. NCN I don’t believe they have the technical people to guide the way forward.”
The Chairman of the Board added that it is still to be determined if the equipment that was discovered could have provided the uplink service.
He said that “the people who know, they are in short supply, they are pricey and it is hard to get a hold of them”. The equipment has been at NCN since the last quarter of 2013.
Panday told Stabroek News that he recognized that those with education and those with experience needed to work alongside one another. “There must be a mixture because old persons will bring to the table their experience which will be invaluable but any organisation needs fresh legs. Experience is necessary to guide the youngsters,” the chairman said.
The Chairman refrained from addressing what has led to the lack of technical staff. He only stated that there needed to be a blend of education and experience.
The board is to meet later this week to discuss recent reports in the Kaieteur News alleging that NCN has been in possession of satellite uplink equipment since 2013.
A five-year contract worth $185M was signed between NCN and Television Guyana Inc (TVG) in 2010 to provide a satellite uplink facility for the Learning Channel. Currently, the government is paying TVG $3.6 million per month in a bundled package for services inclusive of the uplinking cost to the NSS-806 satellite.
In May 2013, GLC Head Dr Seeta Shah-Roath told Stabroek News that NCN had dismissed the uplinking of the GLC as “not a viable project, both technically and financially,” which resulted in no public tender for the service.
The same month former Prime Minister Samuel Hinds had told Stabroek News that plans for NCN to be given satellite uplink capabilities were dashed by then opposition, APNU and AFC’s, budget cuts in the same year.
The legend for NCN’s allocation of $65 million in the 2012 capital projects profile, says: “The project includes purchase of production equipment for various locations, including broadcast loggers, amplifiers, antenna system with combiners, transmission lines, fibre-optic cables, fibre media convertors, teleprompter, microphones, headsets, tripods, recorders, workstations and generator.” It was also meant to facilitate the purchase of a vehicle. However, under the same allocation of $65 million in 2013, it was stated that some of the money would be going toward the purchase of satellite downlink and uplink equipment.
The discovery of the equipment and the subsequent investigation launched by the Office of the Prime Minister has critics questioning why the technology was never utilised.
“To be honest I don’ know if it is all complete…of course I am hoping to do so very quickly,” Panday told Stabroek News adding that he was not aware as yet of how the ordering of the equipment came into being as the management and staff at the time was entirely different. He said that he could offer no insight into if NCN had approached persons that were familiar with the technology to assist with the ordering of equipment and that those issues would have to be raised with former directors and managers.
Stabroek News had reached out to former Chief Executive Officer Michael Gordon last week and was told that he did not have the necessary information to make any pronouncements.
Former NCN CEO, Mohamed ‘Fuzzy’ Sattaur in a letter to Stabroek News on Friday said that he had nothing to do with the uplink equipment which was said to have been found at NCN. “Clearly the blame for this cannot be placed on my shoulders as I was not part of the Management team or the Board of Directors for the last three and one half years,” he had stated.
