PORT VILA (Vanautu Daily Post/ Pacific Media Watch): Vanuatu Broadcasting and Television Corporation (VBTC) was reconnected this week after a 24-hour blackout and over a week of running on back-up generators.
VBTC chairman Jonethy Jerety said the disconnection was due to accumulated bills by the company and publicly apologised to viewers and listeners for the interruption in the broadcasts.
Services were disconnected last Thursday and were then powered by generators over the weekend until the main standby generator failed on Monday causing a 24-hour media blackout.
The Vanuatu Daily Post reports that VBTC had already paid off Vt7.2 million last month and could not provide any more funds for that purpose.
Jerety said he had reached an agreement with the power company, Unelco, to settle the outstanding Vt5.4 million in instalments.
VBTC general manager Fred Vurobaravu said the government needed to give more attention to the welfare and resources of VBTC to ensure that it retains its status as one of the main essential services in the country.
Vurobaravu said the VBTC board had identified the high staff and utility costs as the main issues that needed to be addressed as soon as possible.
He expected the government to give its approval for the funding of the redundancy programme through a soft loan and Vt21 million to roll out the Radio Vanuatu FM 100 network to the islands.
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