Dear Editor,

It is with sadness, though not surprise,  that I’ve been following and commenting upon the developments at the Guyana Chronicle.  When I indicated months ago, when he was initially hired, that Sherod Duncan was unfit for the position of General Manager of the state paper, it was because that I foresaw exactly this sort of embarrassing fiasco.

 I’ve seen a great deal of speculation about whether the spending as exposed in the original Demerara Waves article was justified or not, and debate on whether or not it was a positive thing for the paper.  Anyone familiar with basic management best practice should have automatically seen red flags in the fact much of the expenditure was spent on developing a free distribution channel for the very product the company is supposed to sell.  According to news reports, we had a $5 million dollar expenditure on social media interventions, trips, comfort furniture,  vehicle repairs to the GM’s vehicle, all within three months of what was supposed to be Mr. Duncan’s probationary period, and then the company stating that due to a ‘budget variance’, the company had to engage in a period of austerity, cutting the sort of critical expenditure that comes standard in producing a newspaper – electricity, telephone, fuel and lubricants, meals, and overtime.  I know of no newspaper that runs on social media likes but not electricity.

 In my original letter on Mr. Duncan’s appointment, I made the observation of his having held an absurd prayer breakfast celebrating his patently unethical appointment – we now learn courtesy of Demerara Waves that it was the company that ended up paying for that breakfast. 

 The most telling revelation in the initial expose however had to do with Mr. Duncan stating that Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo personally approved his expenditure.  This is troubling for the very basic reason that, unless my understanding is wrong, the appointment of a board to run Guyana National Newspapers Limited, a state company, is the statutory obligation, not discretion, of the minister with portfolio responsibility for information.  This is a governance best practice that both shields the company from undue direct government intervention, while it shields the government from liability. 

 When Mr. Duncan was hired, I pointed out that it would have been by a vastly diminished board – one that was suffering from the resignation of four members, yours truly included, and consisting of five members, of whom he was one.  As I detailed, prior consideration of Mr. Duncan’s application by the more or less full board had resulted in the consensus that not only was he not the best applicant in general but that he fell far short of the minimum requirements for the position.  

I had stated that there were only two ways in which Mr. Duncan could have been appointed to the post.   The first is if the diminished board of five people, including himself, deliberately disregarded the other applicants and appointed an under-qualified candidate, who had a hand in the decision, as GM.  The second scenario, which Mr. Duncan was pushing at the level of the board, was that the board use its authority, as allowed by the company regulations, to appoint him directly as managing director, which would naturally entail disregarding more qualified applicants.

 To learn that there was no board in place and Mr. Duncan was getting approval for spending directly from the Prime Minister is troubling in either scenario.  If he were directly appointed as managing director from the board under the second scenario, his tenure would have automatically come to an end when the life of that board came to an end, which was virtually immediately after his appointment, rendering his acting as GM over the past three months illegal.

 If it was a case of the board appointing him ahead of other more qualified applicants, presuming that he had resigned before this appointment, what we have is a board taking the decision to make the most senior administrative appointment at GNNL days before it would be dissolved and hence incapable of providing any supervision of his performance during what should be a standard three-month probationary period. 

 Now, perhaps the case could have been made that there was the understanding that there would have been continuity in the next board, one that would provide supervision of an already ethically tainted appointment.  However, as of the time of the Demerara Waves article, no board was in place.  This means that for the entirety of Mr. Duncan’s ‘probationary’ period, in a job that he is unqualified to hold, he had no supervision by a statutorily required mechanism.  The result was the austerity-invoking spending spree in which he has directly implicated the Prime Minister as complicit.  What it now presents the PM’s office with is the further ethical dilemma in which the PM’s office has ordered an investigation into spending that Mr. Duncan said was directly sanctioned by the PM.

 The other embarrassment that has been visited not only on GNNL itself, but on the PM’s office and hence government as a whole is that Mr. Duncan – while on probation – exercised authority that he would not have even if he were confirmed in the job that he is unqualified for, issuing a letter of dismissal to the Finance Controller, Moshamie Ramotar, a respected Chronicle staffer of 22 years, and someone who successfully acted as his direct predecessor in the post of GM.  With no evidence given, and with no due process in the dismissal, Mr. Duncan opened up the company to the sort of wrongful termination lawsuit that his million-dollar unsupervised expenditure would have made difficult in settling.  We now have the other absurdity of the PM’s office having to rescind the dismissal letter and ordering the very sort of investigation into the leak that should have preceded any termination, with no explanation given by the GM on why the dismissal letter was handed out in the first place.

 I’ll be frank.  What it appears to be is that Mr. Duncan’s elevation is a machination of the PM’s Office, one that has resulted in an ever-increasing ethical quagmire.  If it takes a diminished board bypassing qualified applicants to enable an unqualified appointee, and the absence of any board at all to ensure that he passes his probation, and there is still this level of scandal and mismanagement, perhaps another pathway is more sustainable.  Mr. Duncan should be fired, a new and credible board sworn in, applications opened up for the position of General Manager, and the job awarded to the best applicant.  Either that or we dispense completely with the façade of good governance and credibility.

Yours faithfully,

Ruel Johnson

Former Director,

GNNL

Dear Editor,

The double standards in our political culture continue, reinforcing the importance of having an active, engaged, and vociferous civil society if we are to arrive at the stage where all are held to the same standards and play by the same rules.

Note is taken of Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo’s speedy intervention in addressing the dismissal of the Finance Controller of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited (GNNL) by the General Manager. There is the inclination to believe that the Prime Minister’s decision was informed by the General Manager’s disregard for the structure under which the organisation functions.

According to the GNNL’s structure the Finance Controller is appointed by the Board. And where the office holder is so appointed by said authority, the said authority is the only one that can bring the relationship to an end. In industrial relations management this would be considered due regard for the process. The Prime Minister, who has political responsibility for the state media, took the right decision to intervene to avoid a legal clash which would have been an embarrassment to the GNNL management and his leadership 

Having examined the extant situation where he saw the necessity of acting with haste it brings attention to a similar failure on his part, when the opportunity arose, in the termination of the relationship between the Guyana Chronicle with yours truly and David Hinds, as columnists. The termination of our contracts was not consistent with due process. I’m on record saying the decision was influenced by political expediency not universally acceptable principle.  The Prime Minister was notably silent to the violation, in spite of public discussions and urging in some quarters for him to speak.

The alacrity with which he moved to address the issue of the Finance Controller highlights the double standards society must rail against. At the same time, it is hoped his inaction on the issue pertaining to the columnists was not driven by who we are, intolerance for independent voices in the people’s media (i.e. state-owned media), political casualties considered not of consequence, the columnists did not threaten or seek legal recourse, or overzealous coalition supporters who want total compliance to government’s actions, even when wrong.

As I’m on the media issue the opportunity is being taken to remind the Prime Minister of his refusal to honour the 21st August 2012 Agreement in returning the television station to the people of Linden/Region 10. The people shall not forget the coalition’s campaign commitment to do so and his failure to so honour. It should be noted even as the Prime Minister stifles Linden/Region 10 he has personally led broadcasting expansion to other communities and regions.

A political reality check to this administration is the following hard analyses. In 2015 the Executive was won by less than 5000 votes.  In the Legislature the coalition secured a one-seat majority. In Regional Government the coalition won only Regions 4, 7, and 10. In 2016 Local Government Elections (LGE) the coalition lost most of the NDCs, coming after national outcries for LGE which were not held for more than a decade.  LGE will be held later this year and National and Regional Election is constitutionally less than two years away.

In principle Africans are not known to be silent or compliant to wrongdoing, regardless of who is in office, and must not be taken for granted. This community has fearlessly stood up to governments, whether it be in their interest or in solidarity with others for the government to do right by all. This activism was also directed to the Forbes Burnham government, a man who continues to be seen as a hero in the Black community.

There are consequences for disrespecting and mistreating people.  People vote in different forms – marking X on the ballot for another party, not going to the polls, spoiling the ballot, or voting for you. Elections are about numbers and smart politics advises you would be mindful of this, always want the numbers on your side, and will do right by the people to ensure it. 

Yours faithfully,

Lincoln Lewis