Radio Kiribati Forced To Cut Staff
Kiribati's national radio station, Radio Kiribati, is facing an acute shortage of daily earnings, and had to cut its staffing to remain on air.
Acting Manager Tibwere Bobo explains the problem began two weeks ago, when Radio Kiribati's AM transmission was off air due to a break down in the transmitter.
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But that doesn't mean the problem is solved. “Our engineers after installing the spare parts would have to monitor it before they can declare that our problem had been solved,” he said. “And this could take a few days.”
Meanwhile, Radio Kiribati is maintaining its FM transmission which only covers South Tarawa and the remote Line and Phoenix Groups. But money generated from this service on a daily basis is minimal and not enough to cover the daily expense of Radio Kiribati transmissions.
With the approval of the board of directors, Radio Kiribati management has began a reduction of staff by laying-off all temporary staff, giving leave to permanent staff who haven't taken their leave, cut overtimes and other allowances, consume electricity and even stop reporters from using their offices after official hours, unless approved by the manager.
“In the meantime, we have applied an overdraft from the bank to keep us going. We will be taking other measures if our AM transmission is not back on air soon, and this would mean further cuts in our operations,” Bobo said.
