Forensic audit reveals…MEDIA MONITORING UNIT WAS FOR PPP FAMILY AND FRIENDS
The daughter of a former Minister, the sister-in-law of a PPP Information Liaison, a family member of a PPP
PPP’s Information Liaison, Kwame McCoy
Parliamentarian and a favoured young woman who was on the PPP list of candidates were all selected to be part of a special media monitoring unit. This unit was established under the previous administration.
The “special media workers” were paid over $20M from the National Communications Network for which they did not work. That just happened to be the way the payment system was organized.
This was noted by forensic auditors attached to Parmesar, Chartered Accountants. In their detailed report, the auditors said that a total of 35 media monitors were employed by NCN during the period 2011 to May 2015 during which the state company expended $28,813,756 on the said personnel.
According to the report, these employees were contracted by NCN to monitor the transmission of television /radio programmes for content and providing report or analysis for each day of the week on a 24 hour basis. They were also asked to prepare a report on the dates monitored which will be supported by the relevant tapes/reports for verification.
The auditors said that while these employees were contracted by NCN, they were not located at NCN neither did they perform any duties for NCN or report to any official at NCN. The auditors found that the media monitors were reporting directly to PPP’s Information Liaison, Kwame Mc Coy at the Office of the President.
Mc Coy would write to the NCN Human Resources Manager when changes were required. On a monthly basis,
Former Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee
the auditors said that all employees were required to submit an invoice for payment to NCN. The auditors said that employees were required to uplift payments from the NCN Head Office.
FAMILY AND FRIENDS
The report also noted that the media monitors unit employed several family members and friends close to the People’s Progressive Party. It was noted in the report that Renata Rohee, the daughter of former Home Affairs Minister, Clement Rohee was also a media monitor who took home a handsome salary for several years. From 2011 to May 2015, her take home was $2.4M.
Dekeisha Cumberbatch was also an employee of the Unit. She is said to be McCoy’s sister-in-law. Javed Mustapha, a family member of Zulfikar Mustapha, also managed to secure a position at the media monitoring unit.
Zulfikar Mustapha is a PPP Member of Parliamentarian.
The forensic auditors also noted that media monitors were paid on a fortnightly basis with no other benefit. However, emoluments for Waheeda Saheed included gratuity and vacation allowance which is a complete exception from the other monitors. Saheed is confirmed as a close friend of the PPP and was even on the party’s list of candidates during the May 2015 elections.
