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GINA was draining “lifeblood” of Chronicle – PM tells House
Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo
The House yesterday afternoon approved the supplementary provision that was being sought – though already advanced from the Contingencies Fund – by the Government to the tune of $11M to offset partial liabilities to the Guyana National Newspaper Limited (GNNL) that was incurred by the Government Information News Agency (GINA).
The approval that was being sought by the Government in the National Assembly yesterday, came under heavy scrutiny by the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C)’s Members of Parliament (MPs). However, the Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo, took no prisoners since it was his office – the Office of the Prime Minister- Prime Minister’s Secretariat – that sought this provision.
The Prime Minister, responding to queries made by MP Irfaan Ali about the period that the debt was incurred, told the House that it was prior to May 2015.
This sparked chatter amongst MPs on the opposition side. Ali subsequently questioned why the $11M was not included in the August 2015 Budget.
The Former Minister told the house that the Prime Minster has “exposed himself” and cited that there was an “irregular financial situation” at hand.
Nagamootoo later unleashed, stating that the money was a part of a $74M that was owed by GINA to the GNNL and efforts were being made to keep the company viable.
“…Or it would collapse due to its indebtedness owed by the Guyana Chronicle…A forensic audit was conducted into the operations at GNNL and all manner of skullduggery was discovered. There was no discovery of the debt which (was) surreptitiously amassed in transactions that amounted to irregularities which will come eventually,” Nagamootoo stated.
“It was only when we discovered that GINA was draining the lifeblood of the chronicle that we decided that it was in fact, an expenditure that could not be avoided.”
The Prime Minister stated that Cabinet was approached and the money was allocated, describing the process as “an operation to rescue the Guyana Chronicle”.
“We would not allow the Chronicle to be killed because GINA placed ads for the PPP in the Chronicle and they did not pay,” he said.
The Forensic Report into the GNNL was published on the Ministry of Finance’s website a few months ago where several irregularities were highlighted in the report by the auditors. The report showed that free services were provided to political parties in 2015 totalling over $260,000 and there was poor oversight over trade receivables with a balance of $102,489,156 outstanding as at May 31, 2015.
It revealed also, that the top ten customers owe $88,981,814 as at May 31, 2015, these customers had included GINA ($74,091,147), the National Communications Network (NCN) Inc. ($1,582,950) and Kings Advertising ($1,520,843).
From the auditors’ observations, no effort was made on the part of the company to recover these debts.
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