[www.inewsguyana.com] – Journalist, Shaun Michael Samaroo has defended his $1.4M salary from the government of Guyana for the Walter Rodney Commission of Inquiry (COI) saying that he was contracted to produce a book and a documentary on the findings and hearings of the COI.
This comes after reports surfaced in the media late Monday detailing that the COI cost the Guyanese taxpayers $325M with $16M of that money going to Samaroo in salaries.
According to online media reports, Attorney General Basil Williams disclosed that government paid out US$7,300 per month to Samaroo – a state-media operative for his coverage of each sitting of the inquiry.
However Samaroo in a press statement said “at no time and under no circumstance did the Government of Guyana contract my professional media services, or paid me, to report in the State media. I was never contracted as a State media reporter.”
He contended that Government of Guyana contracted his services to write and publish a book on the Rodney Commission’s findings, to produce a documentary on the content of the Commissioner’s report, to archive online the voluminous amount of documents and testimonies the Commission gathered, and to publicize internationally the findings of the Commission’s hearings.
“I was contracted for a specific purpose, and it had nothing to do with reporting in the State media. In fact, I contributed several reports to the Guyana Chronicle on the work of the Commission pro bono, never once receiving any payment for that work. I also contributed dozens of columns to the Guyana Chronicle without compensation of any sort. I did this because I was concerned at the sorry state of Guyana’s State media, and wanted to play a role in lifting the standard of Journalism, and to contribute my writing to the national stage,” said Samaroo.
Further he explained that much of this work is to be done after the completion of the Commission’s final report, noting that he has no intention to shirk such a responsibility.
It was also noted that the Government of Guyana failed to fulfill aspects of the Contract, including outstanding payment.
Good to weed out these paid bloggers spewing their propaganda –
reading some of his articles he comes across as not being well read and in need of higher education and training, just like all those ministers with their bogus doctorates…. Low educational attainment is de rigueur within the PPP
And I don’t remember his job being referenced in the Terms of Reference or advertised in the media. So how did he just show up from Canada and took a job that a local could have done for half the same amount of money? The PPP deserves to be banned from politics, if that were possible.
I want to know how he could be pay monthly for a book that hasn’t been written, just imagine if the PPPC was still in government the amount of royalties he would have collected for his completed book.
Bullcrap, Shaun! Utter bullcrap! This government should fire you immediately and end your freeloading. This inquiry has long morphed into a farce and both you and the commissioners should admit that no one has identified the masterminds behind death of Rodney. You can write books and produce documentaries on this circus, but know that your book and documentary will have an asterisk that denotes a political witch-hunt and not a hunt for the truth.
I would love to see the final results of the investigation. Wow wouldn’t it be something when the truth about the man’s murder comes out? Are you afraid of something young one? Are you afraid you will look stupid as a PNC stooge who didn’t know squat about his idols?
REALLY? so where is the book? and how much of this money was “kicked back” to Ramotar? The BS that’s been going on in this country is shameful! he needs to pay back that money ASAP! or throw his arse in jail.
Holy smokes dude! We blew this guys head off with a water balloon!
Is this the same “Samaroo” who is always blogging on the online news sites like a PPP stooge? I believe it is this same individual. His so called “contract” to produce a book and documentary, etc. should be terminated immediately.
Unbelievable!! Who works for free?? Really! Hmmmm!!!