GT&T looking for protection in an ‘open playing field’ – Dean

Just days after the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) accused its competitor of financial secrecy, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Digicel (Guyana), Gregory Dean, said yesterday that GT&T was seeking protection in what is an ‘open playing field’ and branded comments made by the company’s CEO as ‘blatant lies’.

“A lot of what was said last week was just another publicity stunt, basically aimed at influencing the future of this legislation. For us, they just need to paint GT&T as some kind of victim and, therefore, ensure that they have some protection in terms of what we consider to be an open playing field,” Dean said.

Dean said his company’s performance is routinely reported to the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) and the Registrar of Companies in Guyana.

GT&T’s CEO, Yog Mahadeo said at a press briefing last Friday that Digicel’s failure to release its financial records especially in an era of openness and full disclosures was troubling, especially as the country moves towards liberalisation of the industry.

Describing Mahadeo’s remarks as blatant lies, Dean asserted that except for GT&T reporting to government which is a 20 percent shareholder, Digicel was required to stick by the same rules of disclosure.

“We are in a very competitive field where financial information is very important to our competitors and I would say it would be the same for GT&T. As a result, we chose not to discuss that financial information publicly,” he said.

Dean called on the Government of Guyana to firmly state when telecoms legislation will be enacted, thereby enabling a level playing field for all competitors.