Fraud probe launched at NCN, senior official sent home

Jun 09, 2012 News

The Board of Directors of the National Communications Network (NCN) has launched an investigation

Martin Goolsarran

over payments by advertisers but never seem to have made their way to the accounts of that state-owned company.
Yesterday, the network’s Production Manager, Martin Goolsarran, received a letter from the Board of Directors ordering him to proceed on leave to facilitate investigations. His job would be performed by Michael Gordon, who is now Programme Coordinator.
Officials also said that a number of other staffers including Chief Executive Officer, Mohamed Sattaur, are being probed.
Heading the probe is Board Chairman Dr. Prem Misir. The Board, following reports in the wake of the Budget cuts, wants explanations. Some of the payments claimed have no supporting documents.
One issue has to do with a $3M cheque paid by the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) for programmes. There is no evidence that this cheque went into the NCN accounts.
Another part of the investigation has to do with a female who is employed in the advertising department. The investigators say that this woman has been running her own operations from within NCN.
Over the past weeks, following revelations in the National Assembly that NCN raked in over $500M

CEO, Mohamed Sattaur

in revenues in 2011 yet wanted over $80M in subsidy from government, there have been questions raised about the operations of the entity.
The board has reportedly asked for Sattaur to produce financial documents.
There have been reports of serious wrongdoings at NCN which controls the country’s only authorized radio station and has the widest TV coverage in the three counties.