Kwasi Gyan-Apenteng,
The Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu has called for immediate forensic audit into the huge debt of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), which is threatening the survival of the State broadcaster in a highly competitive media industry in Ghana.
The report on estimates for the Ministry of Information indicates that GBC is saddled with a debt of GH¢45 million, but the Majority Leader believes the actual debt of the corporation is GH¢100 million because many public institutions and political parties refuse to make payment after placing advertisements and hiring the services of the corporation.
As a result of the huge debt, the corporation also owes Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) in electricity bills and ECG is threatening to cut power supply to the corporation.
According to the Majority leader, the forensic audit would help establish exactly how much government institutions and more particularly political parties owe GBC as a result of advertisements placed on the network.
“Political parties are the worst culprits. We know the political parties, which in every 30 minutes, had their adverts running on GTV and up till now they have not paid a pesewa,” he said, and urged all public institutions, which owe GBC to quickly go and settle their debts to the GBC because the debts are seriously affecting the output of the public broadcaster in view of the stiff competition in the broadcasting industry.
The Majority leader also asked the corporation to put in place effective mechanisms in getting services readily paid for so that the corporation would be able to compete effectively in the ever changing media industry
He said the time has come for GBC to adopt new strategies to be able to cope with the competition in the broadcasting industry.
The Chairman of the Communications Committee, Kennedy Agyapong, said the financial situation at GBC is very pathetic but the institution continues to play a critical role in the dissemination of information and policies of the government.
He noted that the broadcasting equipment used by the state broadcaster are all obsolete.
According to Kennedy Agyapong, GBC is faced with frequent breakdowns of old high power consuming transmitters and high maintenance costs of these transmitters, adding that most of the old transmitters need to be replaced urgently.
He said that services provided by GBC to other government institutions are not paid for even though invoices are issued.
Mr Agyapong mentioned parliament as one of the institutions which is also in default.
“Giving the difficult financial situation of GBC, it is necessary that services rendered to government agencies and institutions are fully paid for to enable GBC recover its operational costs and also meet its outstanding commitments,” he said.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr