Controversial NCN Berbice manager, Donna Mathoo, resigns

Sep 04, 2020 News

– interim management to be in place

The Berbice branch manager of the state-owned National Communications Network (NCN), Donna Mathoo, has submitted her resignation from the company.

The Berbice NCN operations.

Resigned: Donna Mathoo

Kaieteur News was informed by the acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NCN, Michella Abraham-Ali, that Mathoo submitted her resignation a month ago and her time at the entity expired yesterday.
Abraham-Ali said that Mathoo is parting ways with the entity amicably.
She disclosed that a Human Resources team visited the location today to ensure that there was a smooth handing over process and to thank her for her service.
Meanwhile, in the interim, the acting CEO disclosed that “we are exploring a management option of utilizing one of our team members while we explore capacity from within the area but for the short term we will be utilizing one of our officers at our head office who will double up as the supervisor just to oversee operations until we identify someone from that area who can suitably fill the position as Branch Manager or a Co-ordinator in the interim”.
She added they are currently in the process of advertising for the position.
Added to that, Ali also divulged that based on her visit with Minister of Public Affairs, Kwame McCoy, a week ago, a few areas that are in need of improvements have been identified.”We are looking in two areas of technological enhancement which is basically training the staff to utilize the technology, which we would have upgraded over the last year or so at the branch and also to do more team building, team enhancement and empowerment, training in technical skills,” she outlined.
In addition, the management of the entity is also looking at shifting the branch from its present location (New Amsterdam Technical Institute Compound) since they are aware of “the current swampy conditions existing at the location and of course because we are also sharing the compound of another agency. If we want to increase our revenue, we have to ensure that we have a location that our clients can easily access.”
She further pointed out that due to the current state of the facility that was already identified for the new location for the branch, “it would require significant capital investment that is not currently in the budget and so we will have to hold and we are going to put it in the capital budget for 2021 for upgrade and possible relocation of the Berbice branch.”
Last week, Minister McCoy along with Abraham-Ali had visited the Berbice location to meet with staff and assess the operations at the entity.
Yesterday, the Human Resources Department also visited the location.
Mathoo was employed at the entity as the Manager under the APNU/AFC administration but had found herself in the hot seat when she was accused of misappropriating $3M over a period of three months at the entity. She was sent on administrative leave to facilitate an investigation but was subsequently placed back on the job after it was reported that she was cleared of the allegations.
Sources then had revealed that the staff worked under instructions from the Branch Manager. There were alleged instructions provided by her to issue “fake” invoices, receipts and also use of “fake” log sheets.
The “fake” invoices were issued after a programme was aired and paid for. However, the official NCN receipt would not be provided to the customer and the money collected from the aired programme would not be booked in the official NCN books.
False invoices were also allegedly issued to customers. Advertisements were also reportedly aired and not logged in the official NCN log sheet. Mathoo was also sworn in as a Member of Parliament under the previous administration.