Of arrogance and disrespect

Apr 25, 2013 Editorial

A tale of disrespect, complacency and arrogance has emerged out of the National Communications Network. The result is that the government is paying another television station for a service that should have been provided by the Government-owned media entity that has attracted millions of dollars in subvention each year.
To add to the situation, the National Communications Network, in response to a question to the National Assembly, reported that it grossed $500 million in 2011. That same year it got an $80 million subvention from the government.
All this would have passed unnoticed but for the expose that a rival entity—at least the second entity should have been a competitor—is providing a service to the government even as the government has the wherewithal to create conditions that would have allowed for its own media house to provide the service. That entity is TVG.
The entire country is aware of the relationship between the owner of TVG and former President Bharrat Jagdeo. Because of this relationship everything that passes between the two is seen as incestuous at worse or conflict of interest at best.
The owner of TVG, Dr. Ranjisinghi Ramroop, has long appeared to be the beneficiary of Government largesse in many areas. He acquired the assets of Sanata Textiles Limited although he did not satisfy all the stipulations in keeping with the agreement entered into with the government. For example, Dr. Ramroop, through his umbrella organization, Queens Atlantic Investments Inc., was required to employ at least 1,200 people before qualifying to buy the complex. The employment qualification was not satisfied.
Sanata Textiles assets apart, Dr. Ramroop enjoyed billions of dollars in contracts to provide pharmaceuticals for the Ministry of Health and the Georgetown Public Hospital. Some of these contracts were awarded on the basis of sole sourcing and to the exclusion of other suppliers who had the capacity to supply the pharmaceuticals at a cheaper price. It is ironic that the justification by the current Minister of Health is that the government is not prepared to sacrifice quality for price. The inference is that other suppliers would have been providing pharmaceuticals of inferior quality.
Never the less, the nation has been looking at these developments and forming their own conclusions, rightly or wrongly. Most people contended that Dr. Ramroop was a beneficiary of his relationship with President Jagdeo and stood to enjoy even more.
So when the news came that TVG, owned by Dr. Ramroop was enjoying this US$15,000 monthly rental for transmission of a government service, immediately antennae went up. Dr. Ramroop was once again the recipient of Government sponsorship.
Now the truth has come out. NCN is a law unto itself and despite the presence of President Jagdeo as the Information Minister this arrogance was allowed to become manifest.
We hear of the out of hand rejection of a discussion for a satellite uplink. The people at NCN said that cost was a factor. But we know that Government has an almost unending supply of money. If it wanted to establish a satellite uplink it could have in the same way that it recognised the need for a hotel and an expanded airport and set about putting these in place. There is also the view that the situation at NCN might have been contrived.
Cabinet examined this issue and declined to attract the skills because the government claimed that it did not see the need for any satellite uplink. Of course in the entire Caribbean there were only two entities with this facility—Sportsmax and the Caribbean News Agency.
Guyana now has the third, and while we are not aware of the things that it uplinks, we do know that it uses the facility to transmit information from the Learning Channel. We also hear that the Ministry of Education is enjoying an extremely favourable rate.
The question of any sanction against NCN for being disrespectful to a potential client has not been addressed by the owners. It would be interesting to have an investigation mounted but then again, the findings of investigations into NCN are never made public.

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