Two NCN editors sent packing over misuse of funds

Jun 19, 2015 News

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By Abena Rockcliffe
Two editors of the National Communications Network (NCN) were handed dismissal letters yesterday

afternoon following an internal investigation into what management deemed as a misappropriation of funds.
The incident was one which occurred during the elections campaign and it is suspected that the editors provided fake receipts for hotel accommodation.
Those fired are Senior Editor, Edward Layne and Radio Editor, Adele Rampersaud.
Kaieteur News was informed that NCN management became suspicious of some receipts that were presented for accommodation in Bartica for the news team that covered a People’s Progressive Party rally. Once the investigation started, the company’s auditors travelled to Bartica and made checks at the hotel.
Kaieteur News understands that a hotel staffer “revealed” that Layne only paid for two double-bed rooms, but requested receipts for eight single rooms.
The staffer claimed that Layne was told that this could not have been done, but financial inducement reportedly turned this around. It is alleged that Layne was then given receipts from a book that the hotel no longer used and those were the ones presented.
When contacted last evening, Layne declined to comment on his involvement in the matter being deemed “petty financial fraud.”
He said, “I do not know what you are talking about, you should talk to NCN; they said they fired me so you should talk to them…contact the CEO or Management.”
However, when contacted, a resolute Rampersaud, who maintained her innocence, told this publication

“the truth” that she said she wanted to get into the public domain.
She said that two Wednesdays ago, she was summoned to a meeting by the internal security officer and was questioned about the misappropriation of state funds.
She said that she was second in charge on the trip, as Layne headed the mission, but while the financial matter was her responsibility, she gave Layne the money to pay for the hotel.
She said, that at the meeting she was told about what investigators found out while in Bartica and that of the $68,000 that was accounted for on the receipt for accommodation, $44,000 was unaccounted for, as payment was made for only two rooms.
Rampersaud said she told investigators that she could not have deciphered that the receipt presented was fake since it was affixed with the revenue stamp, company stamp and an employee’s signature.
Rampersaud told Kaieteur News that the team that went to Bartica comprised eight persons.
She said that all eight were interviewed as well and they all maintained that they had their own rooms “so the investigation was inconclusive.”
The fired editor said that the internal security then sent the report to the Human Resource (HR) department and she was subsequently summoned to a meeting with the HR Manager, Finance Manager, the acting Editor in Chief, an HR clerk and the internal security officer.
Rampersaud claimed that at that meeting, which was held yesterday morning around 11:00, she was “pressured to say what they wanted me to say, they wanted me to testify against Eddy, since he was the target…they had even told some of the other people on the trip while they were being interviewed that Eddy was the real target… as you know, Eddy is not well liked around NCN.”
Rampersaud said that during the meeting, “I asked them if they were serious to think that I would thief forty-four thousand dollars after working there for all those years. I told them that because people in NCN owe me more than that, so I would not take that.”
She said that she further asserted, “y’all did not find me guilty after all y’all investigations, so why y’all pressuring me to change my story. I told them to take the matter to the police; let them charge me criminally and take me to court… that is what I told them.”
Rampersaud added that the HR manager told her that indeed the management has two options – to dismiss her or make it a police matter.
“So again I told them let us go to the police and they told me that they would have taken a decision by this (yesterday) afternoon.”
She said that around 16:00hrs she was summoned to HR where she was handed a letter that said that the company no longer had trust her and therefore no longer required her services.
Rampersaud said that she had received $196,000 for the trip and all other receipts were provided up to date.
“It is impossible for eight persons to sleep in two rooms.”
Rampersaud worked at NCN since 2008 and became an editor in 2012, while Layne worked there for 10 years and was Editor for five.
Rampersaud said that she is exploring her options, but deems her dismissal as an “injustice but God knows best”.
She added that the only thing that is worrying her is the character assassination “but I got caught in the crossfire, Eddy was the target.”

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