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How Bharrat Jagdeo set the stage to take over the media and telecommunications landscape
Bharrat Jagdeo as President in 2011 days before he demitted Office approved licences for a number of his friends, family and colleagues which was his final move to take over the media landscape and telecommunications sector.
At that time Jagdeo, who had arrogated unto himself the portfolio of Minister of Information, gave five radio frequencies to his best friend Dr Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop, Government Minister, Robert Persaud and his sister Ruth Baljeet, under the company name Telcor Communications Inc. as well as the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP).
This ensured that these three entities would have the ability to dominate the radio industry as the others who received radio licences, such as Rudy Grant, were restricted to only one frequency, meaning that they would only be able to broadcast their signal to a limited radius.
By doing this, he ensured that the three who he gave five frequencies to, would be able to dominate the market share and the others would eventually be run out of business.
But this was only one part of Jagdeo’s strategy.
He also gave Cable Licences for TV to Brian Yong and Vishok Persaud both close friends and loyal supporters of the former President.
These two men were allowed to expand their operations nationwide while the other cable TV operators were restricted to servicing just a few villages.
Jagdeo also brought to Parliament, amendments to the law that were meant to liberalise the telecommunication sector and end the monopoly held by GT&T.
In that proposed change in the law he mandated that four companies be given Telecommunications Licences.
These companies were Quark Communications Inc, I-Net Telecommunications Inc, E-networks and Nexlink Communications Inc.
These companies would effectively be able to compete with GT&T and Digicel.
Even as all of this was being done Jagdeo had began laying a foundation by spending billions of taxpayers dollars to bring in a fibre optic cable from Brazil along with a distribution network along the coast from Essequibo to Berbice.
Government then announced that in addition to E-governance, it would lease bandwidth to the private operators.
He ensured that there would be demand for those he planned to give telecommunications licences by spending another several billion dollars to hand out 90,000 laptops.
He said that Government would pay for the first year of internet access free and once hooked up, the owners of these laptops would have to pay.
In another glaring twist of events it was discovered that Brian Yong and Vishok Persaud were just front men.
Brian Yong’s name was declared as the owner of Quark Communications Inc but what was held back from the public was that Winston Brassington, Jagdeo’s chief negotiator and Sabrina Singh, his niece were the other shareholders in that Company.
Vishok Persaud was named as the owner of E-Networks but what was held back from the public was the fact that Keith Evelyn who just happens to be Brassington’s close associate and business partner was a director.
Another of the companies mandated by Jagdeo to receive a Telecommunications Licence is I-net Communications which is owned by Global Technology.
The Directors of Global Technology are Jagdeo’s best friend Dr Bobby Ramroop, his secretary Valerie Khan, his QAII Director, Roopnarine Ramcharitar and three others.
In addition to dominating the radio, internet and telecommunications including mobile sector Jagdeo ensured that private TV operators would be closed for good.
To ensure this the Guyana National Broadcast Authority which was created by Jagdeo, imposed an unrealistic annual $2.5M Licence fee.
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