NCN’s boss lashes out at Guyana Chronicle for publishing her salary, allowances; says its part of “orchestrated attack” by “despicable individuals”

Last Updated on Wednesday, 21 October 2015, 23:10 by GxMedia

The battle lines appeared drawn between the Chief Executive Officer of the state-owned National Communications Network (NCN), Molly Hassan and the state-owned Guyana Chronicle newspaper over Wednesday’s publication of her salary and allowances.

Her statement came just hours after Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo told a news conference that he would tell the Board what he thinks should be done at the state-broadcaster but he signaled that there should be changes. “It needs new energy, it needs new direction,” said Nagamootoo who has ministerial responsibility for the information sector.

Hassan denied that the newly-appointed Board of Directors has been uneasy about her performance, saying that the governing body was yet to meet and its Chairman Bish Panday has already stated that he was “unaware of any dissatisfaction with my performance.” “The Board of Directors has never conducted a performance appraisal with me nor have they ever discussed with me any dissatisfaction with my performance as CEO of NCN,” she said.

She said she has inherited a badly managed company and was doing her best to fix it by executing all policies of the NCN Board, always in accordance with its directives.

“I was asked to manage a badly wounded company; but nevertheless I was able to transfer my exemplary private sector record to the public sector. And in a matter of months despite the political challenges that were brought to bear on my ability to manage the company professionally, I was able to implement strategies which optimized employees output and improve the management and overall functioning of NCN,” she said in a statement.

Without going into details, Hassan said she understood why progress under her watch has gone unnoticed.

The NCN boss expressed grave concern for the safety of her and her family, now that the six-month old conjecture and ridicule has escalated to the publication of her salary and allowances in the Guyana Chronicle newspaper even without giving her a chance to respond.

“And most recently, the unethical exposure of my private information which sought to cause harm to my professional reputation.  My right to employee employer privacy has been breached in a most filthy way.

All of this it would appear, seems slanted towards making me a scapegoat for ills affecting the Company which predates my employ,” she said.

She suggested that other executives in the media industry should speak out against the release of such information. “This has far reaching social implications and consequences; this wanton attack and careless handling of confidential financial information by despicable individuals who have a clearly set agenda should concern similar professionals within the industry and government and in fact any employee of a public organization,” she said.

Weighing in specifically on her salary and allowances, she said that is no different from what was enjoyed by her predecessors of the company as was stated in the Audit Reports that have been tabled in the National Assembly. “For the record, let me state clearly that the after taxes and other deductions salary of the CEO is nowhere near the 1M as is maliciously published by the Guyana Chronicle,” she said.

The NCN CEO said the seemingly orchestrated public attack on her character could only be interpreted as an attempt to undermine her authority as head of he company and “consequently, continue to infringe on staff morale. As a professional, I should not be subject to this unfair level of scrutiny and misguided conjecture.”

Hassan, nevertheless, pledged to stand resolute in her functions as CEO of NCN and remain committed to the overall welfare of the staff of the state broadcaster.