–?? ?Audit report says NCN had no register of its assetsNICIL, the entity that manages Government investments and is responsible for selling state assets, recorded revenues worth $33.3 billion in 2005, an audit report tabled in the National Assembly yesterday shows.According to the 2005 Consolidated Report, profit after taxation totaled $1.5 billion and the government received $1 billion in dividends.The state-owned National Communication’s Network (NCN), a subsidiary of NICIL, was cited for not maintaining a fixed asset register during the year. Auditor General Deodat Sharma said that NCN did not implement and maintain a master and sectional inventory during the year of audit.Further, Sharma stated that the assets owned were not marked so that they could easily be identified as the asset of NCN, and as a result, the completeness,Wholesale Jerseys China, accuracy and the validity of the amount of $614 million representing fixed assets could not be determined.The opposition, this year, voted to cut the annual subvention NCN was getting, and a subsequent investigation revealed financial irregularities at the entity.The other subsidiary companies that fell under NICIL at the time were the Linden Electricity Company, Guyana National Cooperative Bank, National Edible Oil Company,Cheap Jerseys Paypal, Guyana National Shipping Corporation, Guyana Oil Company, Guyana National Printers,Cheap NFL Jerseys Wholesale, Guyana National Newspapers, Properties Holding,? Aroaima Mining Company,Cheap NFL Jerseys China, Lethem Power Company, and Kwakwani Utilities.NICIL’s associate companies were listed as Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company and Omai Bauxite. Investments listed in the report were Hand in Hand Trust, New Guyana Pharmaceutical Corporation,Wholesale China Jerseys, Guyana Stockfeeds,Wholesale Jerseys, Omai Gold Mines and Guyana Stores.The audit report shows that NICIL had total assets of $23 billion in 2005 – almost half a billion more than it had the year before.

“Kaieteur News is waging a war against the Government,” was the observation of Health Minister Dr Leslie Ramsammy when he hosted a press conference yesterday to refute the claims contained in the headline in the most recent Kaieteur News Sunday Special.According to the minister, it is his opinion that the headline ‘Health Minister admits to buying drugs illegally’ was in fact not a mistake, but, rather, a deliberate misrepresentation of the truth.He added that the headline came as part of a wicked vendetta the newspaper has against the Government of Guyana for some unknown reason.“In a bold front page headline, Kaieteur News announced that the Minister of Health admitted that the Ministry of Health procured goods illegally…It is a blatant lie,Cheap NBA Jerseys China, and questions the motives of the Kaieteur News.”According to the minister, the supporting article did not even mirror the headline, since it failed to show that the Minister of Health made such an admission.The article stated that the minister admitted that his ministry made a mistake as it relates to the procurement process in purchasing drugs and medical supplies.The recent Auditor-General’s Report, which was laid in Parliament recently, stated that the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), which is now a separate entity from the Ministry of Health, continued to use the ministry’s Cabinet approval to purchase drugs and medical supplies from specialised agencies both locally and overseas.It was explained that, before the Procurement Bill was passed in Parliament in 2004, the Health Ministry would seek Cabinet’s approval for the purchase of the drugs and medical supplies, which,China Jerseys Cheap, according to Dr Ramsammy, was legal.However, when the Procurement Bill was enacted into law in 2004, the ministry had to receive the approval from the Tender Board.This was not done, as the ministry continued to seek Cabinet’s consent. In essence, the Health Ministry kept breaking the law when it did not seek the Tender Board’s approval for the purchase of drugs and medical supplies totalling hundreds of millions of dollars.But, according to the minister yesterday, the 1997 and 2003 Cabinet approvals were legally appropriate documents,Wholesale Authentic Jerseys, and the Auditor-General never questioned that process.It was in accordance with those approvals that the Ministry of Health procured its medicines and goods,Cheap China Jerseys, the minister asserted.However, he added that the Auditor-General had made recommendations in the 2005 and 2006 reports that the letter of approval from Cabinet ought to be renewed through the Tender Board.As such, he noted, the ministry has since accepted the recommendations of the Auditor-General, a fact the minister said he clearly explained to staffers of the Kaieteur News.“Anyone reading the story would be utterly disappointed with the headline,Wholesale Jerseys Free Shipping Store, because the story itself is inconsistent with the headline…The problem is the highly provocative and mischievous headline.I would not question media practitioners’ right to produce headlines to attract more readers and greater interest in their newspapers,Cheap Jerseys From China, but this right should not permit them to be slanderous and allow them to ever misrepresent the truth…The headline was reckless and irresponsible,” the minister chided.He said that he has always treated media personnel with integrity and absolute dignity, noting that he has never advised media practitioners on which story to carry and how to carry it, even as he noted that no reporter who carried a negative story has had to endure ‘cold’ treatment from him.But even as he admitted that he is a strong advocate for media freedom, the minister said that media personnel are swift to talk about media freedom when Government comes down on media practitioners for unfair behaviour.“Various groups in and out of Guyana jump on a bandwagon defending the media’s rights. But no one ever seems to worry about the deliberate attempts by media houses to distort stories, misrepresenting the truth.”Dr Ramsammy noted that, as Minister of Health, he is not resistant to any media house carrying negative stories about him, the ministry nor the Government, adding that this is a daily occurrence, without the Government responding.“As a Minister of the Government, should I simply allow the media to distort as they please in order to demonstrate tolerance and underline how free the press is? Should I now ban all news reporters from Kaieteur News from calling me, and only allow them access to my open press briefing? If I do so, wo