One day after a senior Berbice official, Donna Mathoo, was sworn in as Member of Parliament (MP) to replace former Business Minister, Dominic Gaskin, more documents have surfaced which is raising even more questions.
Mathoo is the Berbice Branch Manager of the National Communications Network (NCN). She is also a Regional Democratic Councillor of Region Six.
On Friday, shortly after being sworn in as an MP in the National Assembly, where laws are made, documents of NCN surfaced, which indicated she was implicated in systematic fraud at the Berbice branch starting in late 2015.
NCN manages a network of television and radio stations on behalf of the state.
In a letter to Mathoo dated April 13, 2017, from then NCN’s chief, Lennox Cornette, who has since died, she was implicated by employees in a racket to hide cash received for advertisements.
In the letter captioned “Financial Irregularities at Berbice Branch”, an audit of transactions at the NCN branch expressed the opinion that staffers have defrauded the state-owned media company in excess of $500,000 monthly starting in December 2015.
The staffers used fictitious invoices, receipts and broadcast logs.
Internal auditors found that among other things, there were verbal instructions for staffers to air advertisements and private programmes and other unofficial means even though these were not recorded on the officials logs.
The letter sent by the previous NCN chief, Lennox Cornette to his branch manager of NCN, Donna Mathoo in 2017, sending her on leave.
There was no retaining of any copies of the daily attachments to the logs, Cornette had said in his letter to Mathoo.
However, more alarming was what auditors found in early 2017, and the NCN’s chief included this in his letter to Mathoo, the Branch Manager.
He said that there was evidence that orders were issued for the destruction of the fake logs and receipts before the auditors came in to conduct a special exercise in 2017.
Kaieteur News has copies of the audit report, which clearly indicated a widespread, systematic fraud.
Mathoo in a public statement, which was carried by Kaieteur News in April 2018, said that she was asked in 2017 to proceed on leave to facilitate an investigation.
“I proceeded on leave on March 29, 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.”
According to the NCN chief, in the letter to Mathoo, staffers gave statements, “which implicate you as part of the financial irregularities.”
Mathoo was given until April 18, 2017, to respond to the findings of the audit. She was told to remain on administrative leave.
Cornette disclosed then that in addition to paper trail evidence, NCN and auditors were in possession of two video ads to supplement the evidence.
The advertisements were related to the Country Pride programme.
Among other things, the internal audits found that there were several instances of fictitious receipts to customers, creation of separate logs to air ads and the concealing of cash paid for the ads and verbal instructions to staff to air advertisements and private programmes.
There was also evidence that staffers were made to sign blank petty cash vouchers for travelling and then a higher amount was inserted.
“Specifically, the audit has found evidence of 724 advertisements on fake broadcast logs as well as several fake receipts. The matrix that follows gives details of 300 advertisements, aired for which revenues collected were not handed over to the company,” Cornette said in his letter.
In April 2018, the issue of Mathoo resuming her job at that Berbice branch was raised at the monthly statutory meeting at the Regional Democratic Council, Region Six.
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 it was noticed that Mathoo who was under investigation was back at the job.
Yesterday, Hussain called on the police to investigate Mathoo.
“This is a serious matter…Hard evidence was put forth in the media and I also have evidence against this woman and yet she sits there as a representative of the people. What can she do for Berbicians?”
He said that the evidence was presented which shows that money was collected with fake receipts.
“This is nothing less than a criminal act,” Hussain stressed.
He opined that when the matter was investigated it should have executed by the police and not the very entity that she reportedly stole from,
“This matter is not a matter for (any) committee or NCN board to handle; it is too big.”
It is his belief that this particular matter against Mathoo “is like you trying the devil in hell”. Hussain mentioned that the outcome of the case, which led to Mathoo having her job back and ultimately promoted to a higher position- Member of Parliament only occurred because “senior persons intervened and I know what I am talking about.”
He wants the persons who investigated Mathoo to bring forth the evidence and the findings so that the people can decide.
“…because we know for sure people from the government and high level people made input to ensure that this person is being cleared although there is evidence out there to prove otherwise.”
He called for a thorough background check to be conducted and there are strong indications that all is not well.
