Even more multi-million-dollar equipment lying idle at NCN

Oct 15, 2015 News

…disused generator contributes to $$$ losses each minute during blackouts
More shocking revelations surrounding the operations of the State-owned National Communications Network (NCN) continue to unfurl. Kaieteur News has learnt that another piece of multi-million-dollar equipment is lying unused in the company’s compound. It has in fact caused the company to lose money by the minute whenever there is a blackout.

TVG’s boss, Dr. Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop

This situation has obtained over the past three years.
For about three years now, a generator with a capacity of more than 400KVA has been lying idle in the NCN Homestretch Avenue Compound. The generator was purchased to be installed at the Voice of Guyana (VOG) transmission facility at Onderneeming, West Bank Demerara.
This publication understands that whenever there is a blackout, VOG, described as Guyana’s BBC, comes off air since there are no back up generation facilities.
The transmission tower was removed from Sparendaam, East Coast Demerara (ECD) in order to facilitate the creation of Pradoville II—a high end residential community that houses former Ministers and government officials.
The generator was at the time purchased for VOG but never installed.
The end result? Each time there is a blackout by the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) the VOG transmission across the country is taken off air.
According to a well placed insider at NCN, VOG earns an average of $20,000 per hour for programmes aired which would mean that at the minimum, more than $300 is lost in revenue for each 60 seconds the station remains off air. VOG is said to be a National Radio Station.
This past week, Kaieteur News reported that NCN had also purchased more than $20M in satellite uplink equipment but this too was never installed and instead was left lying in NCN’s compound for two years now. This resulted in government having to pay TVG 28, a whopping $3.6M per month to air the Learning Channel.

Former President Bharrat Jagdeo

The staff at NCN at most levels, with the exception of four persons, had been kept in the dark about the presence of satellite uplink facilities lying still in plastic wrapping in the compound.
According to an audit it was only the former Chief Executive Officer, Mohamed ‘Fuzzy’ Sattaur, then Programme Manager Martin Goolsarran, the Finance Controller and a technician Kenneth Jones, who were aware of the presence of the multi-million-dollar equipment.
Recently appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NCN, Molly Hassan, told this publication that there was no plan documented for the use of the equipment which also includes nine satellite dishes.
The dishes, used in the down link aspect of the project, are currently lying in the compound.
This publication was also told that there is currently no staff at the NCN that can operate the sensitive equipment.
According to Hassan, the company will now have to conduct an evaluation of the pieces of equipment and secure the services of competent personnel to bring the facility online.
Kaieteur News, over the weekend, broke the news that NCN had purchased the equipment two years ago but the then government instead of using it, opted to continue to pay TVG 28, now owned by Dr. Ranjisinghi ‘Bobby’ Ramroop, $3.6M monthly, to broadcast The Learning Channel.
Further this publication has since learnt that not only does NCN own its satellite uplink, it is also capable of having any event occurring locally broadcast live not only across Guyana but throughout the Caribbean Region and even in North America.
This publication was told that while there is currently not in train any plans to have the equipment brought online with any haste, it will be made operational by the end of the year.
The contract with TVG 28 comes to an end in December and the administration has already signaled its intention to not have the contract renewed.
Details of the deal with TVG were not made known until two years later, in April 2013, when former Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, in response to questions by then Opposition Member of Parliament Jaipaul Sharma, disclosed that $3.6M was being paid monthly to Ramroop’s TVG.
TVG, it has been reported, collected $70M in 2011 (some $5.83 million per month) for the transmission of the channel throughout the country, using a dish network receiver system for remote communities.

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