NBC must get its house in order

 THE National Broadcasting Corporation is a problematic government organisation. Successive boards and managements have messed it up since independence.

Those are the remarks of Minister for Communications and Information Technology Jimmy Miringtoro, made this week.

Miringtoro gave his blunt assessment of the national broadcaster, which was promp­ted by the Auditor-General’s audit report on the NBC’s management and operations.

The audit report revealed instances of mismanagement of funds and assets running into millions of kina.

Miringtoro has directed the NBC board and management to take stock of their assets and implement the Auditor-General’s report. They are to carry out a feasibility study on the roll-out of Kundu 2 TV to the provinces.

The national broadcaster was once the pride of Papua New Guinea.

It was on NBC Radio that our first Governor-General, Sir John Guise, made the in­dependence declaration on September 16, 1975, in a historic message that was broadcast to all corners of the country.

NBC had covered all the major national events and will no doubt be around for the 2015 Pacific Games.  The broadcaster has over the years produced a crop of seasoned radio journalists, broadcasters, technicians and others.

Its 5-Mile headquarters in Port Moresby and provincial radio stations hold valuable recordings of history in narratives, interviews and music, which are in themselves important national assets that need to be properly archived and stored.

Over the years, workers at the NBC headquarters and throughout the provincial stations have carried out their duties and responsibilities remarkably well.  

Broadcasters or radio an­nouncers have become household names and some have even won sufficient respect and admiration of listeners get elected for public office. The best example is sch­ool teacher-cum radio announcer Michael Somare, who today requires no introduction.

The corporation has survived through annual government grants. However these grants by the national government have sometimes fallen well short of the required operational budgets, forcing some provincial radio stations to shut down occasionally.

NBC has even decentralised its operations for some provincial governments to fund the operations. When no money from the provincial governments was forthcoming, the provincial stations had to close down until money was made available.

While its radio stations were still struggling, the Kundu 2 TV service was launched amid some pomp and fanfare in Wewak. But what was expected to be a successful roll-out into the provinces was not to be perhaps because of the inherent technical and financial difficulties.

NBC today, as a radio and television broadcaster, boasts some of the best trained journalists and producers.

It will take a long while before any other broadcaster can attempt to replace the NBC provincial radio stations and competently do what they have been doing for decades.  The advance of mobile communication may have reduced the need for the use of the free community service announcement  segments called Toksave programmes for example, but NBC provincial radio still remains the key player in rural communications. 

It is a shame that while the hardworking staff of the corporation have had done their bit, managements and boards have continually been largely incompetent or dishonest in their dealings as is evident in the recent audit report.

Miringtoro has raised questions particularly over the sale of NBC lands and the purchase of vehicles for K4 million.  These and other matters have not been clearly spelt out to the minister who should know but does not.

The recently announced move by the incumbent managing director to privatise NBC is the obvious way forward for it to remain competitive and relevant in this changing world of information and communications technology. However such plans depend entirely on a board and executives who are prepared to break with the history of bad management over the years.  

NBC must get its house in order before it enters the future with any hope of sustaining itself as a viable state-owned entity.