SOME $1.2B in assets for the National Communications Network (NCN) cannot be accounted for, the company’s audited financial statements contained in its 2014 Annual Report has said.The audit was conducted by the Audit Office of Guyana and presented at a low-key Annual General Meeting held by the company on October 20. A top government official reacting to the findings in the report expressed serious concerns about the management, accountability and operations of that state-owned entity during the years 2013 and 2014. The missing assets consist of transmission and other equipment.

The official who spoke to the Guyana Chronicle on the condition of anonymity pointed to the Auditor General’s reports of NCN, saying they cast serious questions on the management and accountability at NCN during the period immediately preceding the change of government in May 2015.

The Auditor General, Deodat Sharma, in auditing NCN stated that “the amount of $1,142,964,737 was shown as Non-Current Assets for the year under review. However, the company (NCN) did not implement a Fixed Assets Register. In addition, neither master nor sectional inventories were maintained for the year under review, contrary to Stores Regulations. As a result, the accuracy, validity and completeness of the amount of $142,964,737 shown as Non-Current Assets could not be verified.”

The Auditor General’s report for 2014 was identical except the amount in question increased to $1,213,867,192. The government official is concerned that this situation could have been deliberately orchestrated for the purposes of illegally disposing of NCN assets through corrupt deals and is calling for a thorough forensic audit of the period to determine whether the assets remain in NCN’s possession or are unaccounted for.

The information is only now coming to light as the Auditor General’s reports for 2013 and 2014 were presented at the low key NCN Annual General Meeting which was held on October 20th last at the company’s headquarters on Homestretch Avenue. “This is no insignificant amount, this is over a billion dollars in assets which were being scantily treated by NCN under the previous administration and one wonders what the motive was for this.
“It does not appear as though this was a simple matter of managerial negligence but rather something far more sinister and a forensic audit may be required to bring the facts to light,” the government official said.