–Board of Inquiry finds

THE Board of Inquiry headed by retired Major-General Joe Singh has found that allegations of corruption made by broadcast operator Kenwin Charles against Guyana National

Broadcasting Authority (GNBA) Directors Anthony Vieira and Vic Insanally are unfounded and without merit.
The inquiry found that Vieira was not abusive within the legal definition of abusive; there is no veracity in Charles’s allegation that Vieira was abusive to him at a meeting on August 25, 2016; and there was no veracity in the allegation that Vieira demanded that Charles relocate from the Essequibo Coast.

The report said the absence of direct evidence from Charles tending to prove improper or unlawful conduct by the GNBA directors in question has led to inferences being drawn from evidence.
“It is apposite to observe that Mr. Charles’s testimony was riddled with several inconsistencies,” the report said.
According to the report, Charles also made a deliberate decision to invest in broadcasting equipment, misled the current board, and then Prime Minister Samuel Hinds on the location of his operations on the Essequibo Coast.
He also then secretly recorded a meeting with himself and Director Insanally.
“The question then became how much credibility is to be accorded to such evidence,” the report noted, pointing out that in analysing the evidence before it, a comprehensive picture in totality allowed it to formulate its findings with certitude.

The board was saddled with legacy issues from its inception which influenced its composition. The legacy issues include the Broadcasting Act which was hastily enacted with perceived arbitrary and inconsistent provisions.
According to the report, the modus operandi of the previous administration led to subjective decisions being made which included allegations on the award of frequencies and licences.
This decision was frowned upon by the then Opposition, the now current Government, which pledged to correct these inconsistencies.
“The members worked assiduously to correct these perceived wrongs of the previous administration. Director Insanally with his institutional memory and other directors with their passionate commitment pioneered these objectives and initiatives,” the report said.
It also noted that at the committee level of the board, there were discussions on limiting the powers of the minister in the act and members were resolute in their opinion that broadcast frequencies should not be issued for cable operators.

They also contended that the distribution and management of broadcast frequencies should be the responsibility of the GNBA and not the National Frequency Management Unit (NFMU).
To promulgate the work of the board, the report said Director Insanally designed a 10-point plan with their objects and actions to be taken, which was agreed to by the board and submitted to the Prime Minister.
But it noted that the chair of the board appeared to have been ineffectual.
“The chairman was seen as inhibiting the initiatives designed to correct the perceived subjective decisions of the previous administration. In the end, the political constrains [SIC] and prejudices resulted in the chairman failing to aggressively pursue the mandate on behalf of the board, which consistently led to frustration among directors, relating to the incompleteness of their work and the administration’s unfulfilled promises to the Guyanese people. There is the need for organisational reform at the GNBA which includes a re-orientation towards a more collaborative approach to the implementation of the mandate. The combination of these factors is indicative of the directors having no confidence in the chairman, resulting in some adopting a posture of not being willing to serve under his leadership,” the report said.