Following allegations of the previous coalition Government abusing State resources for campaigning purposes during the March 2020 elections, it has been revealed that some $16 million is owed to the State-owned National Communications Network (NCN) by A Partnership For National Unity/Alliance for Change.
National Communications Network
This was revealed by Minister within the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for Public Affairs and oversight of the various State media entities, Kwame McCoy.
During a virtual press conference on Thursday, he noted that gross financial mismanagement at NCN has resulted in the company being owed over $190 million at a time when it is “near financial collapse”.
According to the Minister, while a majority of the monies owed are from various Ministries which they haven’t been able to collect, there is a sum owed by the APNU – the majority party in the coalition.
“I only see one political party here owing. The People’s Progressive Party/Civic did not use channel of NCN to place ads and if we did, it would’ve been paid for upfront but as far as I know, we didn’t… But I see here A Partnership For National Unity owing $16,078,000 to the company. I don’t see any other political parties owing here,” he stated.
While he could not give much details at the time, Minister McCoy suspected that this sum owed was for advertisements during the elections campaign earlier this year. He promised to provide more details at a later time.
The coalition Government had been accused by many, including then Opposition members and independent political commentators, of using taxpayers’ money to fund its elections campaign. Last year, it had launched a “Ministerial Outreach” but insisted that it was strictly Government business to deal with public concerns and not part of the coalition’s elections campaign strategy.
However, one of those outreaches in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) in February 2019 turned out to be a massive elections campaign event. A large ministerial convoy, comprising of 19 Ministers, had spent three days visiting various communities, making grand promises in exchange for votes.
Meanwhile, concerns were raised again earlier this year during the 2020 Elections Campaign of the previous APNU/AFC Administration using State resources for political activities leading up to the March 2 polls.
In fact, there was public outrage back in January when former President David Granger had used a Guyana Defence Force (GDF) helicopter to attend a political rally in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) – a move that was defended by Alliance For Change Leader, Khemraj Ramjattan.
At the time, the People’s Progressive Party had called on international observers to pay close attention to the abuse of State resources for campaigning activities.
In fact, the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) in its preliminary assessment of the March elections had cited the APNU/AFC Government’s abuse of State resources in order to campaign against its political opponents.
The EU group cited as an example, the former Head of State, who was observed delivering governmental donations during the APNU/AFC rally in Sand Creek on February 15.
It was noted too that “several APNU/AFC Ministers actively campaigned using State resources in their capacity as Ministers”.
Moreover, the EU Mission had reported too that State-owned broadcast and print media are not independent of political influence, and that “the State-owned broadcast media, which benefit from the widest reach in the country, showed an overt bias in favour of the Government and ruling coalition”.
It was documented also that NCN had devoted 60 per cent of its news coverage to the Government and President and 25 per cent to the APNU/AFC.
Additionally, the clear misuse of State resources at DPI and the Guyana Chronicle was also flagged by the mission.
The coalition went on to lose the elections to the PPP/C, which obtained over 15,000 more votes.
