Vulgar acts of malpractice took place at NMFU – says former Head of Inspection

Oct 17, 2015 News

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A former employee of the National Frequency Management Unit (NFMU) is claiming that during his tenure, there were some “vulgar acts of malpractice” all of which took place at the Unit.

His comments come in the wake of a forensic audit into the Unit. The audit has since revealed that there have been several decisions approved by the management that exposed the entity to abuse and corruption.
The former Head of the Inspection Department, Roopnarine Tiwarie, said that there are critical issues which need to be addressed at the said Unit. He cited these to be high staff turnover, malpractices i.e. faulty management which resulted in a shift of blame on innocent staff members leading to improper incarceration of these innocent staff members, partiality, racism, prejudice, improper invoicing, seizing and returning of radio equipment, threats to staff and victimization.
Tiwarie said that this is just the tip of the iceberg. He said that he was pleased to see that a visit to the Unit was done by Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, where he had a firsthand look at how the Unit is being managed under the leadership of Mr. Valmikki Singh, who in his opinion, “is a square peg in a round hole.”
Tiwarie told Kaieteur News that he is requesting an audience with Junior Finance Minister, Jaipaul Sharma, who is in charge of the forensic audits, and the Prime Minister, to provide some insight on some of the core problems plaguing the Unit.
He said, “I was working there from 2007 until January, 2011. I came off because I was threatened by Valmikki Singh. I was forced to resign. It all started with normal investigations that I would do in my department. At the Inspection Unit, we would comb through the frequency systems to ensure that no one is operating illegally.
“If we found something suspicious, then we would go and check it out and find out if the person has a license or not.”
He continued, “One day I decided that we were going to do a combing exercise in the Kitty area. Apparently, Valmikki’s father had a taxi service in that area and there was a High Frequency Radio Antenna operating there. This is used to make radio calls to the interior.
“I asked Valmikki’s father if he had a licence for operating the HF radio and he said it actually belongs to his son and he was not sure if his son had one. I made a note of that and we were supposed to make further checks to ensure that it was operating legally.”
“Within the same week or so, we did a combing exercise in Diamond scheme and found another HF radio antenna which, checks revealed, belonged to Valmikki’s brother. We eventually found that Valmikki’s brother had no licence to operate the HF radios and I placed that into my report and handed it in.”
Tiwarie said that he was harshly reprimanded for doing the report and claimed that the NFMU Head never filed it.
“From then on he started setting rules for me. He always wanted to know where I was doing combing exercises and started picking on me for petty things,” he added.
The former employee then recalled another instance of alleged malpractice during his time at the Unit.
He said, “When you seize a radio and any other frequency equipment being used without a licence, only former President Bharrat Jagdeo or the former Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Roger Luncheon, could have given an instruction to return the items. However, there were instances where my department seized such equipment and Singh instructed us to return it because the people had association with him.”
Tiwarie continued, “In one instance this guy who now owns Quark Communication Inc, Mr. Brian Young, had set up a radio system for a businessman on Regent Street without a licence. Even after I seized it, Valmikki returned it to him. So indeed the report from the forensic audit is revealing the truth. There were vulgar acts of malpractice during my time and when you spoke out, Valmikki victimized you. That entity is corrupt and it needs restructuring.”
Kaieteur News reported last week that the Unit had spent millions of dollars on two ICT projects which were pursued by the then PPP Government. Those two projects were the One Laptop Per Family Project and the Fibre Optic Cable from Brazil to Guyana to support the PPP’s e-Governance project.
Singh did not deny this, but made it clear via a statement to the media that his agency acted based on instructions handed down by the past government to fund mostly operational costs for the OLPF and the e-Governance projects.
He said, too, that his Unit ensured that every single request for payment submitted for the ICT projects, pre-May 11, 2015, was approved by the then Presidential Secretariat before such payment was made.
The NFMU Head had emphasized that this approach continued even after the May 2015 elections, where the Ministry of the Presidency and the Office of the Prime Minister authorized every request for payment.
He noted that all expenditure made by the NFMU for the ICT projects were included in the NFMU budget estimates which were considered and approved by the Committee of Supply of the National Assembly for the years 2012 to 2015.
Singh had said that he is confident that any fair assessment and report of its operations will reveal that the NFMU is properly managed, and that there were no acts of corruption or fraud at the agency.
Junior Finance Minister, Jaipaul Sharma, had told this newspaper that the forensic audit reveals that “several fraudulent decisions opened up the Unit to abuse and horrible acts of corruption.”
Sharma also pointed out that the level of corruption which was taking place at the agency “exposes” the incompetence and “lack of integrity” of those who are in charge.

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