The long-awaited setting up of a local television station at Linden continues to face obstacles with the now 14-member board of the Region Ten Broadcasting Inc (RTBI) adjourning a meeting yesterday over the failure of founding director Sharma Solomon to provide other directors with the “articles of association.”
A meeting convened last evening to elect a Chairperson of RTBI and a company secretary ended with no decisions being made after several directors walked out.
Usually reliable sources told Stabroek News that the directors had requested from Solomon, who is the former regional chairman, documentation on how the board was to be constituted and function so that their actions would at all times be in keeping with their mandate.
However, Solomon failed to provide these documents after promising to do so and the directors decided that in such an instance it would not be prudent to make any decisions.
The source said several directors are concerned that the board may not be a true legal entity and thus may be unable to make legally binding decisions.
Contacted for comment on the issue, Regional Member of Parliament and Board Member Jermaine Figueira denied that there were concerns about the legality of the board. But he confirmed that the meeting was adjourned after Solomon failed to provide the promised document.
According to Figueira, the directors felt it would be better to make a decision about a television station, which is important to and affects the people of Linden, at the next meeting, where they would be in possession of necessary information about the functioning of the board.
Asked the date of the next scheduled meeting, Figueira said it was not yet arranged.
Residents of Linden were promised their own television station four and a half years ago as part of the pact with the then PPP/C government following bitter protests during which three men were killed.
Two governments and two boards of the Guyana National Broadcasting Authority (GNBA) have been in place, but yet the station is not operational and a licence has not been issued. No one is sure whether to blame this situation on the current administration or the people of Linden, who are apparently continuing to squabble over the composition of the Board of Trustees of the RTBI.
