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Aug 09, 2013 News
Since December 2011, Government has paid almost $70M to Television Guyana (TVG) for the airing of educational programmes on the state-owned Guyana Learning Channel (GLC).
Answering questions on the start-up of that channel which was controversially placed under the control of TVG, Education Minister Priya Manickchand disclosed that several critical pieces of equipment including antennas and dishes were purchased from that outfit.
TVG was paid almost $7M to provide 17 antennas, 20 dishes, 17 receivers and 16 dish stands and to install these for GLC.
Minister Manickchand made the disclosures in answer to questions posed by Member of Parliament, Cathy Hughes, of the Alliance For Change (AFC).
TVG is owned by a Dr. Ranjisinghi Ramroop, a close friend of former President Bharrat Jagdeo.
According to the Minister, TVG was at the time of the procurement of the service, and remains now, the only supplier of the service which allows communities all across this country to be able to benefit from the programmes on the Learning Channel.
Manickchand, pointing out that the questions were answered earlier this year during a press conference, said that TVG’s service was procured using the method of single source procurement.
The contract between GLC and TVG is for five years.
“Currently, GLC has six full-time, six part-time and two temporary personnel employed with studio teachers and scriptwriters contracted as needed. The Learning Channel hires the best skill available for the best price available. Decisions to hire are not based upon any other consideration such as ethnicity, community from which persons have emanated, gender, social background, class etc etc. and it is hoped that the basis for this question was not for purposes of profiling any of the persons employed by that entity. The persons presently employed are from Georgetown, New Amsterdam, Orealla and Kwakwani,” Manickchand said in her answers.
GLC’s satellite receivers/dishes are located in Georgetown, New Amsterdam, Benab, Orealla, Kwakwani, Linden, Lethem, Annai, Aishalton, Mahdia, Port Kaituma, Mabaruma, Bartica, Morakaibai, Anna Regina, Karasabai, and Ituni.
According to the Minister, GLC utilises 17 antennas located in Georgetown (2), New Amsterdam, Benab, Orealla, Kwakwani, Linden, Lethem, Annai, Aishalton, Mandia, Port Kaituma, Mabaruma, Bartica, Anna Regina, Karasabai and Ituni.
GLC also utilises the GT&T tower at Benab and one of Digicel’s at Mora Point.
Earlier this year, Dr. Seeta Shah Roath, head of the Multi-Media Unit and the GLC, said that the latter is a non-commercial, apolitical educational television broadcast network, focused on education, since it started up on April 2011.
She said that research found that TVG was the cheapest alternative of transmitting the programmes of GLC, using what is known as satellite uplink teleport.
In fact, she said, except for CANA and SportsMax of Jamaica, there was no other entity capable of up-linking video signals to satellites in the whole of the Caribbean; even the Ministry of Education in Trinidad has requested coming down to Guyana and examining the facilities so that they can do similar.
TVG, she insisted, had the technical expertise, the finances, and the design. They were already deploying equipment and setting up. She also said that the state’s National Communications Network had neither the experience nor ability to deploy a satellite-based solution at that point in time.
The final agreement with TVG, which was concluded in 2010, requires TVG to provide GLC with a guaranteed satellite transport network service which included satellite uplink, adequate satellite bandwidth, 24 hours monitoring, full system redundancy and guaranteed power and reception.
For the Learning Channel to have set up a similar service for up-linking video signals to a satellite, it would have required an equipment capital outlay of US$150,000 plus monthly recurring costs of over G$4M in bandwidth rental and associated services, plus infrastructure.
GLC, throughout the country is transmitted on different channels. In the city, GLC is found on Channel 80.
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