{"id":9189,"date":"2015-10-11T19:57:43","date_gmt":"2015-10-11T23:57:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=9189"},"modified":"2015-10-11T20:00:06","modified_gmt":"2015-10-12T00:00:06","slug":"gisl-cnmga-big-waste-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/?p=9189","title":{"rendered":"GISL, CNMG—\u2018A big waste\u2019 of $$"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Gail Alexander
\nOctober 11, 2015guardian.co.tt<\/A><\/I><\/p>\n

Minister of Communications, Maxie Cuffie<\/a>A Government Information Services Ltd (GISL) CEO was also hired as a consultant for a state company which bought him an SUV vehicle, and a CNMG freelancer was collecting \u201cfour salaries\u201d under the past People\u2019s Partnership (PP) administration, Communication Minister Maxie Cuffie revealed yesterday.
\n
\nCuffie\u2019s disclosures came in his 2016 budget debate contribution in Parliament. <\/p>\n

Referring to \u201cmalpractices\u201d at GISL and \u201cPP party hacks\u201d at CNMG, Cuffie\u2019s revelations caused exclamations of astonishment from People\u2019s National Movement (PNM) government MPs.<\/p>\n

Stating there were bloated budgets at both GISL and CNMG, he said GISL was the most bloated. Cuffie noted the PP administration spent $90 million on state media at CNMG, GISL and the Parliament Channel. This was the figure up to early last week, he said. Late last week, Cuffie discovered that an additional $80 million was spent on GISL alone.<\/p>\n

Claiming similarities to the PP\u2019s ill-fated Life Sport programme, Cuffie said there was \u201csheer wastage and corruption in the PP\u2019s communication division, whether in the prime minister\u2019s office or Trade Ministry.\u201d He said this involved TV programmes, billboards and other items. <\/p>\n

Cuffie said he had been one of 2,075 public officers who lost jobs after June 2010 with the incoming of the PP administration.<\/p>\n

The former CEO of GISL under the past PNM administration, Cuffie said GISL has spent twice its budget over the PP term than when he left it and its wage bill increased by 26 per cent annually, \u201c…with the feeding at the trough by friends, family, boyfriends and girlfriends of PP members, and high PP officials…\u201d <\/p>\n

He claimed structures were lax regarding academic qualifications for recruitment, \u201cNo qualifications needed except a birth certificate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cuffie said there were three GISL contracts, including for a consultant resident in T&T who had been paid US$10,000 monthly and who lived in Westmoorings. He said the person was also hired as a consultant to a state company which bought him an SUV vehicle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe GISL board made him acting CEO from January 2015, but it was a conflict of interest as the consultant was also at a state company…\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the person received US$190,000 or $1.2 million (TT) and had \u201cthreatened\u201d the permanent secretary if the latter didn\u2019t allow his contract to continue.<\/p>\n

PP MP Roodal Moonilal asked Cuffie to name the person. Cuffie said he was sure Moonilal, the former prime minister, and Rodney Charles would know who the person was. <\/p>\n

Cuffie said internal auditors expressed concern about breaches of tendering policies, procedures for election, overriding of controls, non-adherence to rules including those for advertising vacant posts, staff budgets regarding freelancers and getting value for money issues.<\/p>\n

He told the opposition PP bench to ask Tabaquite MP Surujrattan Rambachan how many family members were employed there.<\/p>\n

Cuffie claimed former prime minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar\u2019s speech writer was also at GISL and \u201chis family also feasted at the trough.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said a former Congress of the People (COP) chairman was paid $200,000 to do a communication plan for GISL, and it was later found to have been plagiarised from the Internet from a province in Canada. It was rejected by the ministry. But the person refused to return the payment. Cuffie also claimed COP leader Prakash Ramadhar said nothing about it and he didn\u2019t believe Ramadhar had not known.<\/p>\n

Cuffie said he left GISL a debt-free company and now found it owing suppliers and media companies millions.<\/p>\n

Cuffie claimed GISL\u2019s Project Icon, comprising video clips of PP ministers speaking, cable ads and electronic billboards, was a \u201ccon job\u201d done by a man who \u201chad a way with words\u201d and who was the beneficiary of $15 million.<\/p>\n

He claimed the project was called a strategic plan but was really a costly means to \u201cenrich a few\u201d through which the UNC hoped to get elected via its message\u2014\u201cYour Government Working For You.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Icon programme was meant to include the use of 500 screens and the service providers were paid in full, although only 50 screens were installed, Cuffie claimed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Project Icon was a web of mismanagement, vanity and waste. The new GISL board has been mandated to stop wastage and hold the executive accountable for actions\u2014but we\u2019re still getting to the bottom of the wastage and corruption and I intend to keep Government and Parliament apprised.\u201d<\/p>\n

CNMG\u2014PP party hack haven?<\/p>\n

Under the Kamla Persad-Bissessar administration, Cuffie said, state-owned CNMG became a \u201cUNC party organ,\u201d lost money, and was worse off when the PP left office than when the Partnership began. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a haven for PP supporters. Party hacks were also paid $1.2 million to go on air as part of the No-Rowley campaign,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Cuffie said the staff wage bill was up 26 per cent and its newsroom head count was 35 fixed employees and 50 freelancers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe total wage bill for fixed-term employees plus freelancers grew from $17.4 million in 2010 to $24.4 million by September 2015, an increase of 40 per cent. I understand the reasons for this increase in the headcount…, the practice of executive instructions for retaining services from freelancers and consultants, with total disregard for policy guidelines for state enterprises. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnother reason was inconsistent requests for the outsourcing of freelance services. One consultant and freelancer earned two sets of fees amounting to $36,900 per month. Another earned four salary fees amounting to $46,000 per month.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cAdditionally, freelancer services from Ground Report and FaceOff programmes were also significant cost increases to the freelance bill amounting to $793,692.44 and $427,700 respectively, in 2014, for the two programmes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation was also due to changes in the organisation structure by creating new positions, without proper approval and above standard market rates for specially selected freelance services, while dedicated and committed employees have been largely ignored and demoralised.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cuffie said CNMG had weak performance and low audience ratings, including its morning show. He said the former prime minister\u2019s \u201cdebate with herself\u201d didn\u2019t help its rating and being a \u201cpolitical machine\u201d affected its credibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Market Facts and Opinion surveys for 2012, 2013 and 2014, none of the programmes ranked within the first 16. The performance of the morning show was dismal and was nowhere on the radar of viewers.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Government was holding the station executive accountable and the CNMG board would soon be advertising for a station CEO.
\nFull Article : guardian.co.tt<\/A><\/I> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Gail Alexander October 11, 2015guardian.co.tt A Government Information Services Ltd (GISL) CEO was also hired as a consultant for a state company which bought him an SUV vehicle, and a CNMG freelancer was collecting \u201cfour salaries\u201d under the past People\u2019s Partnership (PP) administration, Communication Minister Maxie Cuffie revealed yesterday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[310,1,178,566,30,7,142],"tags":[85,1012,1076,834,144,1015,49],"class_list":["post-9189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-elections-general-tt","category-general-tt","category-media","category-opposition-party","category-pnm","category-politics","category-unc","tag-abuse","tag-cnmg","tag-gisl","tag-guardian","tag-kamla-persad-bissessar","tag-politics","tag-tt-govt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9189"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9191,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9189\/revisions\/9191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.trinidadandtobagonews.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}