By Alva Solomon

THE National Communications Network (NCN) did not invoice the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) for advertisements carried in 2011 and 2015, which amounted to more than $22M.This is according to the findings of a forensic audit of NCN which was undertaken for the period November 1, 2011 to May 31, 2015.

Undertaken by accounting firm Parmesar, the audit indicated that, in 2011, the PPP was not invoiced for the sum of $18,204,750, representing advertisements carried on both radio and television. Of that sum, almost $13M was recorded as the amount covered for public service announcements (PSAs).

“NCN could not present a documented policy on PSAs. However, we understand that political advertisements are not approved as PSAs,” the auditing firm noted.

The auditors reported that the PPP was not invoiced for advertisements carried in 2015, representing a sum of $3,708,200 for both radio and television advertisements. In that instance, an expense of more than $2M was incurred by the Party for radio advertisements.

The auditing firm also reported that the then opposition APNU+AFC was not invoiced for ads totalling $20,000 in 2015, while the APNU was not invoiced for ads totalling $45,000 in 2011.

In other eyebrow–raising matters, the firm noted that NCN incurred legal fees to recover debts from defaulting customers through the courts. In two instances involving Hits & Jams Entertainment ($7,913,193) and the Kashif & Shangai football group ($2,046,703), the court ruled in favour of NCN. However, the Board of Directors of the television entity, at a meeting held on March 10, 2015, decided not to enforce the judgment, and failed to recover the debts. According to the audit report, for the two matters, NCN incurred legal fees in excess of $1.2M.

In Berbice, the auditing firm recommended that legal action be considered against Faizal Jaffarally, former PPP Parliamentarian and former NCN Berbice Manager; and Tishti Gajraj, a former Administrative/Accounts Clerk at NCN Berbice, to recover the amounts overcharged to Assembly of Prayer, a Canada-based organisation which entered into arrangement with NCN Berbice Branch in September 2012 to purchase airtime to air Christian-based programmes.

According to the report, the Assembly of Prayer was invoiced, and the money — $591,600 — was paid into Gajraj’s personal bank account. It was reported that NCN issued official invoices and received payments of $417,600. The firm stated that the church group was defrauded of $174,000.