Withdraw all Jagdeo-issued radio frequencies now - Nagamootoo

Withdraw all Jagdeo-issued radio frequencies now – Nagamootoo

Apr 09, 2013 News

“There will be no compromise on this matter”

Former People’s Progressive Party ‘Big Wig’, Moses Nagamootoo, yesterday called for the withdrawal of all the radio frequencies that were recently handed out by former President Bharrat Jagdeo, declaring that there will be no compromise on the matter.
Delivering his contribution on the 2013 budget debate, Nagamootoo, who now represents the opposition Alliance For Change, said that there is a serious conflict of interest with regards to the allocation of frequencies.
“It is disgraceful and scandalous. This is naked nepotism,” Nagamootoo declared.

AFC Member of Parliament Moses Nagamootoo

In 2011, just before he demitted office, President Bharrat Jagdeo doled out radio frequencies mostly to close associates of the ruling PPP/C regime, in a move that Nagamootoo also described as lawless and discriminatory, since the process was not transparent.
The Broadcasting Bill was passed in the National Assembly on July 28, 2011, and assented to in September, 2011.
President Jagdeo distributed the frequencies days before the November 2011 elections.
One recipient, Telcor & Cultural Broadcasting Inc., whose principal is Ruth Baljit, the sister of Robert Persaud, was granted five radio frequencies in November, 2011.
New Guyana Company Ltd., publishers of Mirror newspapers also got five frequencies.
“This is the company for which I worked as a journalist for some 22 years,” Nagamootoo told the National Assembly.
According to the AFC Member of Parliament, at present, the Mirror’s press is non-functional. The newspaper has been out-sourced for printing by Guyana Times, owned by Jagdeo’s best friend Bobby Ramroop, “and the printery, hived off to Ed Ahmad, a convicted felon in the USA, and friend of Mr. Jagdeo.”
Nagamootoo went into a bit of history, explaining that the New Guyana Company Ltd. was first registered on October 30, 1959 as Company No. 657.
For many years the Directors were Bissessar Jairam, Charles Jacobs, Derek Jagan, George Robertson, Earl Maxwell and M. Poonai – all deceased.
“There are two other names currently associated with this company. One is Haripersaud and the other is Donald Ramotar, who is named as Secretary. Need I say anything more?” Nagamootoo asked.
“In addition, multiple frequencies have been allocated to Dr. Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop, Mr. Jagdeo’s friend. Then in 2010 there were cable licenses given to Brian Yong and Vishok Persaud,” he added.
Nagamootoo reminded the National Assembly that except for a few, all the recipients of radio frequencies are connected with the PPP; are themselves high state officials, and are associated with Government leaders as “comrades, friends or relatives”.
He referred to a newspaper article dated March 24, 2013 which reported the Speaker of the National Assembly, Raphael Trotman, as describing the allocation of frequencies as “obscene”.
“He said, ‘decency, commonsense and good governance dictate a reversal of the allocations’,” Nagamootoo stressed.
“The spectrum is our limited national resource, a public property. It could be a great money-earner. It must not to abused or given away willy-nilly,” said Nagamootoo, who then referred to a famous case in India to solidify his point.
“In India, auction of wireless broadband brought in US$12 billion in 2010. But before that, in 2008, 2G spectrum frequency allocation for mobile telephone was handed out to friends in a massive scam. Big people went to jail.
“The Stabroek News on April 2, 2013 reported that the Supreme Court of India declared the allocation “unconstitutional and arbitrary” and quashed all the 122 licenses issued in 2008. The court found that the Minister ‘had gifted away an important national asset’. The scam of India is now haunting Guyana!”