“I was invited to resume duty at NCN” — NCN Berbice manager

Apr 07, 2018 News

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At Thursday’s monthly statutory meeting at the Regional Democratic Council, Region Six, the reinstatement of the Berbice Branch Manager for the National Communications Network (NCN) was one of the hot topics highlighted.
Several persons including the Regional Chairman, David Armogan, and the Community Development Officer for Region Six, Barbara Pilgrim, expressed their disapproval at the status of the investigation.
Zamal Hussain, the PPP Councillor who raised the issue at the meeting, stated that last year the Manager, Donna Mathoo, was under investigation for alleged corruption at the entity and this year is back at the job.
He revealed that Ms. Mathoo was also allegedly being paid while she was being investigated.
“This government campaigned against corruption and now they are paying people to be corrupt,” he stressed.
Brandishing several ” fake receipts” and “log sheets” while making his point, Mr. Hussain added , “The particular person that was in charge was giving fake receipts for certain sums of cash collected and if the government re-hire this particular person then I’m seeing that this government is not only tolerating corruption, but is corrupt”.
He called for the findings of the investigation that was reportedly conducted internally to be made public.
The Regional Chairman, David Armogan, who was also in support of Mr. Hussain’s call for transparency, stressed that there was not even a statement released on the reinstatement of the Manager.
“All we know is that this person has gone back to her employment and that’s the end of the matter. That cannot be right, that is a public position and the matter was in the public domain as well because when the accusations came out, there were many people who lost their job and so we as members of the public would like to know why is it that those people are gone and why is it that this person is back,” Armogan argued.
He opined that everyone, including the manager, should have been removed and not a selected few. “The public deserves to know [what is] the status of the investigation and the findings.”
Community Development Officer to the government and for the Region, Barbara Pilgrim, also supported this contention. “For the sake of transparency, the report on the investigation should be made public”.
It was also mentioned at the meeting, that staff at the branch are now working under uncomfortable situations since the return of the manager.
One staff member said that, “they are being given a hard time, especially those that provided information against her during the investigations”. It was also made known that Ms. Mathoo has ventured into some local farming on the plot of land where the NCN branch is located.
Meanwhile, after months of reporting on the issue and inviting the said Branch Manager to comment on the matter, she has finally issued a statement on behalf of herself.
The statement read; “I was appointed Branch Manager of NCN for Berbice in August 2015. During the month of March 2017, there was an investigation into allegations of misconduct against a junior staff member, as the manager with responsibilities for operations of NCN Berbice at the time.
I was asked to proceed on leave in order to facilitate an investigation. I proceeded on leave on 29th March 2017 after which date the investigation commenced. During the course of the investigation, Mr. Omadatt Ramnarine’s services were terminated by the NCN. I was provided with a copy of the findings of the investigation. No allegation of misconduct against me was contained in the findings. After due consideration and deliberation, I was invited to resume duty on 5th March 2018.”
She, however, did not deny nor admit to being paid during the time that she was sent on leave. The statement comes even as information was filtered to this publication by a former official of the entity that during the internal probe, there were findings to implicate Ms. Mathoo in the allegations of mismanagement of monies at the branch.
A former staff had revealed that evidence of fake log sheets and invoices done by Ms. Mathoo were sent to NCN Head Office as part of the investigation. An audit was also done at the branch after Ms. Mathoo was sent on leave.
She was accused of “pocketing” nearly $3M from the entity over a period of fifteen months and issuing false receipts and log sheets to customers.
The Production Manager was fired at the commencement of the investigation; another staff resigned and Ms. Mathoo was sent on leave.
Supposed proof of Ms. Mathoo’s wrongdoings were also made available by a former NCN staff during the investigations.

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