Gama TV stopped charging $ 6.6 million for 119 “Sabatinas”

Ecuadornews:

The Comptroller’s Office established causes, implicated and amounts of losses in the seized channel. Business and commission payments are disclosed to advertising agencies linked to family members of ex-officers of the Correa government, and he does not charge for transmitting citizen links. The objective now is to recover $ 9 million to apply a process of reactivation of the television station.

The Comptroller General of the State issued the results of a second audit on the economic losses in GAMA TV (Gamavisión), where it makes at least 9 observations regarding alleged anomalies detected. The special examination of the control body covers the period from January 1, 2015 to October 31, 2017, to administrative and financial operations to the Television Company of Pacífico Teledos SA. There are established the causes that would have led to bankruptcy to this means of communication, with more than 40 years of life.

Within the 9 observations that appear in the report, 5 main topics are identified, among them, the businesses linked to public servants of the government of Rafael Correa. After the results of this second Comptroller’s report, it was determined that the value to be recovered is around $ 9 million, with which it is expected to reactivate the channel.

The issue that most draws attention in the report of the Comptroller General is related to Citizen Links, which left losses of $ 6.7 million, for services provided by the channel that were not charged, including transmission.

Martha Moncayo, general manager of the Public Media, pointed out that this “is the main financial blow that could be given to Gamavisión, which had staff, time and the costs of uploading an image on the air.” The examination observes the alleged bad administrations on the part of previous managers and financial heads of the channel, when executing contracts with private companies and not complying with the due bill collection, as well as the co-production services with public employees.

Similarly, the non-payment of payroll to the Ecuadorian Institute of Social Security (IESS) for months, despite the monthly deduction to employees. But, according to Moncayo, there is a very serious situation: a possible tax fraud to the Internal Revenue Service (SRI), whose demand was admitted to the Office of the Prosecutor by Xavier Aguirre, former manager of GAMA TV, and with the support of Andrés Michelena, who in at that time he was General Manager of Public Media.

“The analysis with a specialist of what is the tax management, determined that the Gamavisión books were based on reports that were not attached to the truth about what they declared”, added Moncayo.

To recover the money, the Management of Public Media will accept the respective legal channels, taking into account that the majority shareholder of the Television Company of the Pacific Teledos SA is the State and that funds that are somehow public were misused, since the channel also has private shareholders.

“All processes are in the hands of the liquidator and will have the support of Public Media to do so,” Moncayo said.

The Comptroller’s recommendations will allow certain adjustments to the financial statement, allowing Gamavisión to improve its equity position to overcome the cause of liquidation and be able to enter the process of reactivation in accordance with legal norms, said the channel’s authorities. (I)

Source: https://www.eltelegrafo.com.ec/noticias/medios/1/auditoria-quiebra-gamavision-canal-incautado