Audit on NFMU reveals…$$Millions spent on unrelated projects

By Kiana Wilburg   
The forensic audit into the National Frequency Management Unit (NFMU) continues to bring to the front-burner, even more atrocious acts of dishonesty.

Junior Finance Minister, Jaipaul Sharma

Junior Finance Minister, Jaipaul Sharma told Kaieteur News that he was appalled when he discovered that “almost 90 percent of the funds of the Frequency Management Unit dating back to 2012, 2013 and 2014 were spent on two projects that had absolutely nothing to do with the agency.”
The report on the forensic audit which was conducted by Chartered Accountant Chris Ram showed that in some cases, the hog of the Unit’s funds went to the PPP’s failed Fibre Optic Cable from Brazil and the One Lap Top per Family project. Sharma said that he found this to be “very strange and downright deceitful.”
The fibre optic cable which was started in 2011 was intended to bring another source of internet connectivity to Guyana. It should have been completed by 2013, but turned out to be a major embarrassment for the previous administration, after it faced delays due to damage and other technical issues.
It was part of a bigger initiative to advance Guyana’s e-governance drive and equip 90,000 poor families with laptops and link state agencies into a network.
Dax Construction Company was contracted earlier this year by the previous Government to repair the damaged cable and bring it into operation, in exchange for a number of concessions and partial use of the internet connectivity.
The contract between Dax and the PPP/C was for an initial 25 years with an option to extend it for a further 15 years.
The contract also said that Dax Contracting Services would  be provided with tax exemptions and incentives, including but not limited to tax holidays, remissions, tax waivers and duty free concessions on equipment, spares, tools and vehicles. The vehicles would be two SUVs, and three four-door pick-ups, renewable three years for the next 40 years.
To add insult to injury, the then government had agreed to pay Dax for specific emergency maintenance.
The contract signed between Dr. Roger Luncheon and Faisal Mohamed has been described as the most generous giveaway package, worse that the Sanata Complex in the run-up to the 2011 elections.
It also mirrored the giveaway of the radio frequencies done under the administration of former President Bharrat Jagdeo, during his last days.
Since the new administration took over, it ordered Dax to halt all its operations, bringing an end to the sweetheart deal the entity signed onto with the then PPP/C government.
The One Laptop Per Family and the E-Governance projects along with the Brazilian fibre optic cable initiative, reportedly cost taxpayers in excess of US$70M. Another fiber optic cable contained in a transmission cable laid by the Guyana Power and Light Inc. and stretching along the coast, reportedly pushed the final tally well past the US$120M mark.
“It is unbelievable that they (the NFMU) were hiding expenditure on these projects. It goes to show the kind of financial lawlessness that was allowed to take place at these agencies.
I just don’t understand how monies could be spent on these two programmes which had nothing to do with the Frequency Management Unit from the beginning. The auditor has already made it clear that about $100M has to be recovered in this regard for it goes against the financial regulations of the company,” said the Junior Finance Minister.
Minister Sharma had said, “There was just no proper management at this unit. There were instances where you could see that they just lost out on millions of dollars worth in fees that they should have ensured they collected. There were some defaulters as well who the agency just took no action against.”
“They could have collected a lot more revenue but no. They allowed a lot of favouritism to take place and as such they lost, I would say, millions in revenue. They allowed their PPP boys to slip under the radar while others were called upon to pay their dues. In fact, they weren’t collecting from two of their PPP big boys for some time. It was a lot of unfairness that was going on at that agency.”
Kaieteur News had published on several occasions that the previous government caused up to five frequencies to be awarded to PPP family and friends which gave them the ability to operate Radio Stations with a national reach.
Some of these entities which received such special treatment under the previous administration  included  Bobby Ramroop, the best friend of former President Bharrat Jagdeo, Robert Persaud’s relatives and the then ruling party’s Mirror newspaper company, along with E-networks and Quark communications.
The Head of the Frequency Management Unit is Valmiki Singh. Sharma indicated that the “disturbing” findings of the report prove that the mission statement is nothing but a “nicely-worded declaration to fool the people of this nation when all along is a set of wickedness taking place.”
The Junior Finance Minster told this newspaper that the revelations of some of the forensic audits thus far vindicate the concerns the APNU+AFC had when it served in the opposition regarding the lack of accountability under the previous administration as well as the stench of corruption in some agencies.