February 16, 2016 Source

By the end of this month, the National Communications Network (NCN) should be providing the uplink for the Guyana Learning Channel, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo told the National Assembly last evening.

Answering questions about the proposed spending of the Office of the Prime Minister, Nagamootoo said there was a “very exciting programme” for expansion of the services provided by NCN.

PPP/C MP Juan Edghill had asked Nagamootoo to explain the $150 million allocation for NCN, noting that this was a significant increase, over $50 million, from last year’s allocation. He also asked the minister to state the total revenue and expenditure for NCN in 2015.

The minister stated that NCN is a loss-making agency bringing in revenue of $33 million and expending $55 million each month. He noted that at the beginning of this year NCN was approximately $200 million in debt.

This information did not satisfy Edghill who said it was unacceptable for the PM to come to the House asking for a $54 million increase in allocations without offering justification.

However, Speaker Barton Scotland interrupted the Edghill to note that he was unlikely to get another answer no matter how often he asked the same question.

In response to questions about the Learning Channel, Nagamootoo noted that $23 million were spent on the uplink facility last year and an additional sum of $8 million has been allocated for phase two of the project. Phase one saw previously purchased equipment being installed.

He explained that the $8 million will be used to implement structural systems to ready 9 sites to bring GLC to the outlying regions.

According to the minister, by the end of February NCN should be able to offer the service previously offered by Television Guyana (TVG).

A five-year contract worth $185 million was signed between the government and TVG in 2010 to provide a satellite uplink facility for the Learning Channel. Currently, the government is paying TVG $3.6 million per month in a bundled package for services inclusive of the uplinking cost to the NSS-806 satellite.

In October last year it was reported that equipment capable of performing that same service was discovered at NCN. However, Minister of Education Rupert Roopnaraine had told this newspaper last month that TVG will continue to provide satellite uplink services for the GLC until the end of February while NCN worked out its “issues.”

Last evening Nagamootoo intimated that these issues had been resolved and equipment had been installed and was “ready to go countrywide.”

He also stated that two community radio stations in Mabaruma and Lethem with the capacity to link to NCN radio were to be operationalized in 2016 at a cost of $45 million.

Further allocations were made, according to Nagamootoo to build an access road to the Voice of Guyana (VOG) transmission facility at Onderneeming, West Bank Demerara so that a previously unused generator could be operationalized.

The minister was also questioned on a $10 million allocation which he said was for discretionary spending.

According to the PM the spending of these funds is actually informed by actually need for a purpose that is social. He noted that last year his office assisted in the building of a fence for a playground at Liliendaal, assisted persons who couldn’t afford the cost of burial and awarded money to CineGuyana for the production of a documentary on Guyana’s territorial integrity.

Like ministers Joseph Harmon and Winston Felix before him Nagamootoo was also called upon to explain the allocations for contract workers within his office.

Opposition Chief Whip Gail Teixeira began the attack by asking him to explain the “astronomical” increase in the salary allocations for contract workers under line item 6116.

Teixeira noted that the number of contract workers in the office had moved from 15 to 26 with an increase in salary allocation of $61 million. Allocations in 2015 were $21.7 million, while this year’s allocations are $82 million.

She asked that Nagamootoo explain how 26 employees were earning this sum; she also asked that he explain why his secretariat, which has duties significantly less than that of the former Prime Minister, needed such a number of contracted staff.

In his response the PM informed the house that upon his assumption of the office there were 17 persons on the roll. He claimed that through attrition during the 2015 both by resignation and two terminations that number was reduced to six. As such his office has employed 20 new persons on contract with monthly remuneration ranging from $51,000 to $530,000.

According to Nagamootoo, the average salary of his staff is $197,000.