Cabinet will tomorrow receive Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo’s views on the findings by Major General (Ret’d) Joe Singh in his report on allegations of misconduct against two Guyana National Broadcasting Authority (GNBA) directors.
“It is a thorough job that was done and it is clear to my mind that there was really a kind of a breakdown in people carrying out their responsibilities,” the Prime Minister said last week Friday, on the sidelines of the sitting of the National Assembly.
Singh was selected by government to investigate the allegations of misconduct made by broadcaster Kenwin Charles against members of the GNBA Board.
He was given the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the inquiry by Minister of State Joseph Harmon and was told that it was expected of him that he should submit his report to the Prime Minister Moses by the end of last month.
The move by the Prime Minister for an independent investigation came last month, shortly after Chairman of the GNBA Leonard Craig announced that the board would be investigating Charles’ allegations against Board members Victor Insanally and Anthony Vieira.
Craig, in a statement, had said Charles, of Northwest TV Inc., an unlicenced operation, asked to meet with him to highlight several concerns. “At that meeting he made a complaint essentially accusing Mr. Anthony Vieira and Mr. Victor Insanally of trying to improperly force him out of doing business on the Essequibo Coast where he had made significant capital investments,” Craig had said.
He added that Charles also indicated that he had met with the Prime Minister and a similar complaint was lodged. “I gave him every assurance that his matter will be given urgent consideration and that I will address this matter with the Board as soon as he makes a formal written complaint,” he added.
However, Insanally and Vieira subsequently sent Craig a lawyer’s letter, warning him to desist from repeating “false” allegations made by Charles, while adding that they will be seeking damages for his publicising them. They also called on him to apologise.
Charles was also sent a lawyer’s letter by the Board members’ attorney CV Satram, calling on him to retract his statements and issue an apology to the duo or face civil proceedings for damages.
Nagamootoo explained that he had collected the report and gave an update as at Friday November 4th. Said the Prime Minister, “The report was presented to me on Friday (October 28th 2016) and I have since submitted it to Cabinet. Because of the short space, I didn’t get to deal with the recommendations, so I laid it over to cabinet, so that members of cabinet can take a look at it and at the next meeting I can probably submit my comment on the recommendations.”
Further, he added, “I don’t want to say anything at this point but I really believe that the way the matter was treated it was unnecessary for anyone’s character to be impugned .It was unnecessary for anybody to say that people were corrupt or anything like that.”
Meanwhile, Nagamootoo informed that he had not yet received an official resignation from the GNBA Chairman and was waiting for this before a move is made on the appointment of a replacement.
“I am still awaiting to hear from the current chairman. Officially he hasn’t resigned. I know that he is out of the country but he has not sent me his resignation. I will deal with that issue once I hear from him,” he asserted.
