Two State agencies — the Tourism Development Company (TDC) and the National Lotteries Control Board (NLCB) — have been accused by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley of spending $734,000 of taxpayers’ money on a radio station to smear his name, leading up to the 2015 general election.
Rowley made the disclosure while addressing PNM stalwarts at the public meeting in St Joseph on Tuesday. The PM recalled that one evening, while seated in his vehicle on his way to the Queen’s Park Oval, he heard comments being made about him on Talk City 91.1 FM’s Ground Report programme, which he described as “most vulgar, outrageous and filthy.”
Talk City is owned and operated by State-owned Caribbean New Media Group. Rowley said he questioned how a programme like that could have been permitted on the airwaves, “election or no election. It was all about me and meh father and meh mother and this and this and I had raped this and done that.”
The PM said the programme was conducted by known felons who were on the then government’s payroll. Rowley said it was later discovered that both NLCB and TDC had made payments to run the programme on the airwaves.
“These payments were made by the TDC and the NLCB. Taxpayers’ cash was being used to conduct that vulgarity of the last campaign... to abuse the Opposition Leader.”
In May, June and July of 2013, Rowley said the radio station received payments of $86,000, $100,000 and $86,000 respectively. For the periods September, October and December in 2014, the station collected $45,000, $40,000 and $30,000. By April of 2015, Rowley said a total of “$734,000 was paid” to the Ground Report.
Rowley also spoke about the Chaguaramas Development Authority (CDA) coming to the Cabinet for an increase in its overdraft to pay salaries.
“And while they can’t pay salaries for workers in there, that same agency entered into a $12 million contract with Ernie Ross to provide PR.”
The PM said the CDA spent $9 million on PR and was “being sued for another $3 million. So it was a $12 million deal. That is how the plan was working.”
In May 2015, Ross Advertising was paid $8,057,000 by the CDA to develop and co-ordinate the authority's rebranding, communications and marketing initiatives. This was revealed by former minister of planning and development Bhoe Tewarie in answering a question in the House of Representatives.
In addition to the $8 million, $3.6 million was paid in legal fees to a number of attorneys. Rowley also condemned NLCB for deciding in July 2015 to cut ties with CNMG and instead pay more than $35 million over the next five years to a private entity, Media 21, to broadcast the lottery results.
“Those who came into office found it necessary to bring that activity outside of the Government premises and of course, they are telling us that we can’t stop the contract,” Rowley said.
The PM has instructed Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi to look into this matter.
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