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PPP General Secretary claims ignorance on $18M NCN debt
– says agency making no effort to resolve issue
Professing that the National Communications Network (NCN) has not made contact with his party to provide invoices detailing the amounts reportedly owed, People’s Progressive Party (PPP) General Secretary Clement Rohee
The billboard had previously been commissioned as a GWI ad but instead was changed to be used as a campaign tool for the PPP/C. GWI refused the bill from Impressions after the actions of the PPP.
is claiming ignorance of the party being in debt.
Rohee made this contention yesterday, in response to questions about the forensic audit into the state agency.
According to auditors, the PPP benefitted from some $55M in advertising from NCN, for which they were not billed or had they paid up to May 2015.
“You are asking me to respond to what has appeared in the newspapers,” was Rohee’s initial response. “We cannot respond to moneys owed (by) us based on what has appeared in the newspapers. We have to be able to get the facts.”
When pressed on whether his party did or did not owe NCN, Rohee stated that the PPP has been corresponding with the NCN Board and requesting to see evidence of the debts, such as invoices.
“We have asked for the data. We have asked for the invoices. We have asked for (them) to be attached as evidence of these debts. We have not received anything as yet. Quite some time ago, we asked NCN Board.”
Rohee, who at the time would have been Home Affairs Minister, was adamant that the party always paid for whatever services it solicited. This comes against the backdrop of complaints, not only from NCN about being owed, but also from Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) over billboards the party modified for its benefit in last year’s elections.
“I don’t know about the party. I know the party pays for whatever services it purchases or solicits or procures or outsources. So we need to make a distinction and then we see whatever they have whether it is the Government or the PPP. Sometimes we get these things mixed up. Some people say it is the PPP.”
PPP General Secretary Clement Rohee
Reminded that the question related to whether the party used its incumbency for party related advertisements, he stated that this was a judgment issue. Asked about whether he was not concerned about the view that the party took advantage of its power while in office to request free advertisement, Rohee made it clear that he was not worried.
“Politicians don’t get worried easily you know. It takes a lot to worry a politician. I don’t think (President David) Granger is worried about some of the things we are saying here.”
According to the forensic audit report into NCN, the then ruling PPP/C was not invoiced for $18.2 million in advertisements aired by NCN in 2011.
The report went on to detail that in 2015, the party was similarly not billed for $3.7 million in ads, making the debt a total of $21.9 million. In fact, it was reported that $12.9 million of the sum for 2011 was recorded as being ‘Public Service Announcements’.
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