Investigators recommended legal action against Goolsarran, Sattaur

 Latoya Giles

Former Production Manager Martin Goolsarran

Former CEO Mohamed Sattaur

The Board of Directors (BOD) at the National Communications Network (NCN) has already acted on recommendations from a Special Report into several irregularities at the corporation.

After persistent questions by the media at every recent Presidential press conference, the Head of State Donald Ramotar, on Saturday disclosed that the report had been posted on the Government Information Agency’s website.

Ramotar said, “All the time he was labouring that it wasn’t made public, but the report was on the website”.

According to the President “it was up on the website….but was removed following a “hacking”.

However, even though the BOD may have acted on the recommendations, input is still needed by the President.

He dodged questions about why he is yet to act on the report which has been sitting on his desk for over two years.

Investigators into the National Communications Network fraud have recommended that Legal action be taken against the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mohamed Sattaur, and the Production Manager, Martin Goolsarran, following the misappropriation of funds.

“For all amounts paid to any individual, take necessary actions, including legal, to recover loss of revenue” the Special Report into irregularities at the NCN stated.

The   investigation into several allegations of fraud by senior functionaries at NCN revealed that there were significant breaches by former CEO Sattaur and Goolsarran.

According to the report, in September 2011, NCN entered into a verbal agreement with GT&T to record its Jingle and Song Competition. The services to be provided by NCN included recording and editing of live shows around Guyana. NCN was also required to broadcast the shows on NCN television.

Part of the agreement was that NCN would also have broadcast advertisements on NCN radio and television to promote the Jingle and Song Competition.

These arrangements, according to the report, were made between Goolsarran and Wanita Huburn, who represented the telephone company. Approval was given by Sattaur.

However, with all these arrangements between Huburn and Goolsarran there was no written contract prepared.

NCN later went ahead and billed GT&T and received payments for advertising services totaling $2,779,012 VAT inclusive.

Another bill was sent to the telephone company for broadcasting the Jingle and Song competition and they were paid amounts totaling $2,888,400 VAT inclusive.

No billing and no payment was recorded as received by NCN for production services.

Misappropriation of production income….

Investigators noted that Shabana Singh had the responsibility for preparing invoices which are based on completed Broadcasting and Job Orders submitted by the Marketing Department.

It was noted that Singh reported that in June 2012, Sattaur, in the presence of Goolsarran, requested that she prepare an invoice to be dated January 2012, to cover production cost for the GT&T Jingle and Song Competition for the period November 2011 to January 2012.

The amount for the invoice is $3,620,000. Singh refused to carry out the request as no Job Order was given to her for these activities. Singh also indicated that Sattaur and Goolsarran made a few requests for her to prepare the invoice.

Following Singh’s refusal, Sattaur and Goolsarran instructed Annanda Ramjewan to prepare a Job Order for the GT&T Jingle and Song Competition production services and forward it to the Finance Department for the preparation of an invoice. Like Singh, Ramjewan too refused to prepare the Job Order.

These two employees, according to the report, said that it was unethical to prepare a Job Order that should have been prepared in the normal course of business since January 2012 and submitted to the Finance Department for invoicing in June 2012.

Martin Goolsarran’s invoice ….

A copy of an invoice dated January, 10, 2012 with Goolsarran’s home address was obtained. That invoice was addressed to GT&T and represent production costs for the Jingle and Song Competition for the period 2 November 2011 to 6 January 2012.

The invoice amount was $3,620,000, which was the same amount, and services that Shabana Singh was asked to prepare the invoice for in June 2012 and backdated to January 2012.

Goolsarran, in a written statement, indicated that NCN was unable to provide to GT&T the full production services due to the requirements for National Election coverage.

(It should be noted that the NCN records indicated that it has 51 cameras and there is no indication of staff limitation), the report stated.

The report also stated that with the approval of Sattaur, part of the production work was sub-contracted to Hits and Jams Entertainment (HJTV), a private entity.

Again, no written contract was prepared to evidence the arrangement with HJTV.

Based on this arrangement NCN would have earned $3,620,000 and HJTV would have earned $3,930,000 for production services.

Goolsarran, during the investigation, admitted that he received on two occasions amounts totaling $3,930,000 in December 2011 from GT&T for production services. These amounts were deposited to his personal bank account. He claimed that the $3,930,000 was paid to HJTV on two occasions for their services.

Further, a receipt dated 21 January, 2012 from HJTV was presented with details of two payments made by cash in December 2011 and January 2012 for a total of $3,930,000. The details on the receipt referred to recording and editing of “GT&T Guyana Star 2011 Competition” which is a separate activity from GT&T Jingle and Song Competition.

Kerwin Bollers of HJTV indicated to the BOD that he did not prepare this receipt but only signed it.

Further, the BOD had indicated that Bollers reported that the amount he received from Goolsarran for production work on the GT&T Jingle and Song Competition was less than $3,000,000.

The GT&T Guyana Star Competition was held in August and September 2011. NCN billed GT&T separately for advertisements relating to this competition.

Up to the time of the investigation NCN did not issue any invoice to GT&T for production services provided for the GT&T Jingle and Song Competition. In discussions with the BOD, Huburn confirmed that, two payments of $3,930,000 were made to Goolsarran based on his personal invoice.

A third payment is pending for an invoice submitted by Goolsarran. It was determined that an amount of $3,620,000 is due for production services for the GT&T’s Jingle and Song Competition.

The report stated that it would appear that Goolsarran submitted a personal invoice to GT&T for $3,620,000 in January 2012, but in June 2012 was attempting to have an NCN invoice be prepared and backdated to January 2012, to cover up the personal invoice which was not settled by GT&T.

Further, Sattaur was assisting Goolsarran in having the invoice prepared by the Finance Department.

The investigation was to specifically investigate allegations of financial irregularity occurring from September 2011 to February 2012 and with regard to the account for the GT&T “Jingle and Song Competition.”

Information was received by the BOD of NCN that the Production Manager, Goolsaran, may have misappropriated revenue arising from these services.

The investigation was carried out during the period 14 June to 18 June 2012. The methodology used included, were “Discussions with members of the BOD, Interviews with staff and an Inspection of documents and records of NCN” among others.