Broadcast Authority was premature

with licence for Telecor

 
Days before it formally received its radio licence to operate five frequencies, Telecor and Cultural Broadcasting Inc. appointed four directors to ensure that more than 51 per cent of the voting powers on the board would be Guyanese residing in Guyana.
This made the company fully compliant with the requirements under the Broadcast Act.
But even before the company satisfied this criterion, its licence was already

Dharamchand Depoo receives the radio licence for Telecor and Cultural Broadcasting Inc from GNBA Chairperson, Bibi Shadick

approved by the Guyana National Broadcast Authority (GNBA).
Those that became directors are Daramchand Depoo, an Attorney-at-Law in Corentyne, Berbice, Ryan Basdeo, Khemraj Narain and Michael George.
This was done on June 21, 2013.
However, Chairperson of the GNBA, Bibi Shadick, two days earlier, on June 19, 2013, had announced that 24 licences (Radio/TV/Cable) were ready to be handed out and all that remained for the operators to do was pay their fees.
But Telecor had not satisfied the criterion for the voting rights residing in more than 50 per cent of the directors resident in Guyana. This meant that the GNBA had already approved the radio licence for Telecor and Cultural Broadcasting Inc., even before it became fully compliant as it relates to the requirements for directors.
When Bharrat Jagdeo in 2011 approved Telecor and Cultural Broadcasting Inc, for a radio licence, the company had a sole shareholder in the person of Ruth Baljit, a Guyanese national who is also a US Citizen, and resides in the United States. The Company Secretary was Omkarananda Lochan, the Permanent Secretary in Robert Persaud’s Natural Resources Ministry. He has since resigned.
The Broadcast Act requires that 51 per cent of the voting members of the Board of Directors be Guyanese nationals, residing locally.
Baljit is the sister of Robert Persaud, and was at the time the sole owner of the company.
She continues to reside in the United States.
The other Director, Kamini Persaud, is former President Bharrat Jagdeo’s niece.
This publication understands that the company had applied for a licence and when it was shortlisted, it was written to, to put its house in order.
Shadick, in November last year, called in all operators and told them that they would have to re-apply for licences, be it radio or TV. She informed the operators that they would have to ensure that their companies are incorporated, thus making them shareholding companies with the voting rights on its board of directors to be at least 51 per cent residing in Guyana.
Telecor and Cultural Broadcasting Inc. is a company that was incorporated by Attorney-at-Law, Jaya Manickchand, in 2009. The company was incorporated with 500,000 shares. Each annual return filed lists Baljit, a US citizen, as the sole shareholder.
Kaieteur News understands, too, that the company was struck off the Registrar’s Companies List for failing to file annual returns. This was denied by the company. But records show that it was restored to the Companies List in October, days before Jagdeo would have approved it for five radio frequencies.
Dharamchand Depoo, the former Company Secretary, now director, uplifted the Licence for Baljit.
Several prominent, independent media entities including Kaieteur News, Stabroek News, CNS 6, WRHM 7, RBS 13, Capitol News, HBTV 9 and GWTV 2 were all bypassed by Jagdeo. He approved frequencies to a number of others, but only allowed them one frequency each, thereby limiting the range to which they can broadcast. Those with multiple frequencies included the ruling party, and Ramroop’s radio.
The former President has also come under criticism for granting cable television licences to two companies – E-Networks Inc. and Quark Communications Inc. Both companies have Directors and shareholders with close links to him.