By: Mariama Njie
The Managing Director of the Gambia Radio and Television Services (GRTS) has disclosed that the national broadcaster has not been receiving subvention from government and looking at it 90% of their programs are directed within the agenda of the government.
Abdou MS Touray informed National Assembly Standing committee on public enterprise on Monday during the consideration of the institution’s 2019 activity report.
“In those days we are not even talking about subvention, when GRTS started in 1995 it was a very viable institution because there was a lot of support from the government and has lots of equipment in those days but comparing the situation of 1995 to date there is a lot of changes.”
He went on that the issue of repositioning GRTS is keys and without subsidiary they have setup means and GRTS will only focus on content production and not going to be seeing transmitted signals that will be the responsibility of the Digital Gambia Limited.
He urged that Gambia Radio and Television Services like any other public broadcaster should be on a sound footing.
But looking at the situation today, challenges have overwhelmed the institution because the levy the institution is talking about is not a sustainable thing,
“GRTS should be reposition and to be given all the resources for us to compete that will be viable because the situation in other African countries is different as their government is giving them all the supports to be able to train their people and operate but that is not the situation here in Gambia,” he lamented.
MD Touray revealed that the TV station is using equipment that were stalled during the AU Summit since 2005 and some of the equipment are having problems.
He said the levy fees they are receiving is indirect through the GSM operators, which he did not think is subvention because other countries like Senegal are receiving direct subvention from government.
“GRTS as a public service broadcaster cannot compete in the same level like any private broadcaster because of the public service remit, necessarily GRTS has to be subsidize, it is not a commercial entity but a public service broadcaster,”
However, the Standing committee on public enterprise adjourned the consideration of the activity report and financial statement of the GRTS for the year ended 31st December 2019, until further notice.
