Govt re-examining Ministries’ PRO divisions – McCoy

As the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government continues its transition into office and is examining the state of affairs, it has started to look at the public relations structures at the various Ministries and State agencies.
This is according to Minister within the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for Public Affairs and oversight of the various State media entities, Kwame McCoy.
He said his Ministry is, “examining the existing Public Relations structure in each Ministries and the Government agencies so as to enhance the efficiency of these outfits.”
McCoy was at the time speaking at his first press conference since his appointment two weeks ago. In response to a question, McCoy noted that it is also examining the performance of the Presidential Press Unit which it inherited.
“Indeed, that is one of the units that we’re looking at as well. It needs some adjustments and we are working to get the adjustments in place so that we can have greater efficiency in terms of coverage of the President…,” the Minister stated.
Only recently, Housing Minister Collin Croal told Guyana Times that six employees of the Ministry who were political appointees were relieved of their duties including Communications Officer Andrew Weekes.
He explained that Weekes had been campaigning for the APNU/AFC coalition and was employed as a communications officer in spite of the Ministry having a Public Relations Department with one public relations officer and two assistants.
Weekes was brought on board by then Housing Minister Annette Ferguson in January and given a contract for one year. He was being paid some $203,202 with a $15,000 allowance. According to the new Housing Minister, there is no evidence of Weekes doing any work for the Ministry.

“Worrying” trends
Meanwhile, during Thursday’s virtual press briefing, Minister McCoy went on to point out that an initial assessment of the State-owned media entities – the National Communications Network (NCN), the Department of Public Information (DPI) and the Guyana National Newspaper Ltd (GNNL) – found a series of “worrying” trends. These include the lack of prudent financial management, high levels of nepotism, poor interpersonal relations, poor working conditions and polarisation of staff.
He noted that the GNNL was subjected to at least two periods of gross mismanagement under two separate General Managers, while there was a significant management deficiency at DPI during the coalition’s tenure.
“At one of these agencies, we found levels of staff that I would describe as top-heavy. And so when you examine, it was all about providing opportunities for friends and families. These real critical matters that should have been addressed were found hanging,” the Minister asserted.
McCoy further stated that in addition to being driven to a point of “near financial collapse”, NCN was also suffering from “total mismanagement” and “degeneration of resources”.
In highlighting how “bad” the situation was, the Minister disclosed that the company’s three vehicles used to transport staff were all down. The repair cost of one of the vehicles was approximately $100,000 but instead of fixing the vehicle, another vehicle was contracted at the rate of $7000 per day.
He also spoke of the transmitter in Essequibo being down – and no one has gone to check it for months.
Nevertheless, McCoy posited that his Ministry is now in the process of reorganising and retooling these agencies.
“We’ve begun to examine ways in which these agencies can be salvaged and their financial and management interventions over the next few weeks will be made known to the public as we seek to tidy the situation,” the Minister stated.
Only last week, the new Government announced temporary appointments at two of these State media agencies. Renowned broadcaster Michella Abraham-Ali was appointed interim Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NCN and Financial Manager, Moshanie Ramotar, was named to acting General Manager at the GNNL, which publishes the State newspaper – the Guyana Chronicle.