National Frequency Management Unit targeted for dissolution Most staff to be retained under new telecommunications agency

National Frequency Management Unit targeted for dissolution Most staff to be retained under new telecommunications agency – Hughes

Jan 23, 2018 News

Minister of Public Telecommunications, Cathy Hughes (right) and Telecommunications Consultant, Andre Griffith

Government has started plans to dissolve the National Frequency Management Unit (NFMU) and transition staff to the newly established Guyana Telecommunications Agency as a body corporate to manage the sector.
Minister of Public Telecommunications, Cathy Hughes, yesterday said that she signed the commencement order on Friday, establishing agency to take effect from January, 19, 2018.
“The objective of establishing the agency, now, is to give time to put in place certain administrative arrangement that are necessary to the agency to function effectively when the entire act is brought into force,” Hughes stated.
The NFMU is headed by Valmiki Singh and had come under the scrutiny from the Special Organised Crime Unit (SOCU) after an audit from Ram and McRae, Chartered Accountants, uncovered several troubling instances of alleged mismanagement.
Hughes assured that the staff from NFMU will be transitioned to the new agency.
“We are pretty confident that most of them, probably all of them, will be. We are going through the process of organising and refining the structure. The agency will have a very heavy need for services in terms of spectrum management, frequencies and prices. We don’t envision that many people will be laid off, but as we get the agency going, we will be in a better position to give specifics,” Hughes pointed out.
Andre Griffith, the consultant overseeing the establishment of the agency explained that the Board of the new agency is to be appointed shortly, which will explore staffing needs.
“That is a function that can only be done by the Board and so we don’t want a situation where the agency is brought into being and now looking for a board to be established and have people be uncertain about their employment. That is one of the critical things that the board will have to address in this preparatory period,” Griffith stated.
He said that the Board is authorised to regulate its own procedures.
“A lot of the preparatory work that we have done is subject to being brought into effect by the board itself. The board will want to look at that work, review it, refine and maybe amend it in some manner before they accept it,” Griffith stated.
Some of the things that the agency needs to put in place are its internal governance arrangements such as the financial regulations, human resource policies and the rules of procedures for the board.
Additionally, the administrative procedures to facilitate the implementation of the legal provisions for licensing, monitoring, enforcement and other responsibilities are to be pursued in keeping with the Telecommunications Act, 2016 and subsequent regulations.