TV and Radio Martí face another audit

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"Inside a heavily guarded, three-story building in an industrial section of West Miami-Dade, Radio and TV Martí spent $37 million this year to crank out news and entertainment that few Cubans on the communist island ever hear or see.

U.S. funding has remained generous despite Cuba's persistent jamming of TV Martí signals, plummeting numbers of listeners for Radio Martí and two federal audits -- in 1999 and 2003 -- that found a repeated history of cronyism and ''inappropriate and inadequate'' hiring practices at the Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which oversees the operation.

OCB has spent $250 million in the past 10 years to reach Cuban listeners and viewers -- by far the largest expenditure per listener or viewer among U.S.-government financed broadcasts."

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"OCB Director Pedro Roig says TV Martí turned the corner in August when U.S. flights resumed, in an attempt to overcome Cuba's jamming of TV signals.

''I believe in what I'm doing,'' said Roig. ``The best way to help people attain democracy in Cuba is to give them the information they need.''

Despite Roig's focus on improving the Martí operation, OCB faced embarrassing news last month: Federal prosecutors indicted a senior TV Martí executive in a kickback-for-contracts scheme. The Inspector General's Office has launched a broad look at OCB operations, searching for fraud, mismanagement and misuse of taxpayer dollars."

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16263845.htm