By Amin Kef Sesay
According to reliable sources within the corridors of State House there are suspicions that the Government of Sierra Leone is on the verge of selling the Sierra Leone Cable Limited (SALCAB) to a foreign company.
It was further understood that the new company will have the responsibility of managing the country’s terrestrial network based on plans already put in place by the Ministry of Information and Communications.
It will interest readers to know that SALCAB is a wholly Government owned Optical Fibre infrastructure company which was incorporated as a limited liability company in 2012 operating as a sale bandwidth and other related value added services provider to the ICT industry generally aiming to make Broadband Internet affordable for all Government, individual households,small,medium and large businesses, educational institutions, the health sector, hospitality industry, Non-Governmental Organizations etc.
SALCAB is the ACE Submarine Cable Landing Party in this country responsible for the operation and commercialization of wholesale International Services on the ACE Submarine Cable as well as providing National Wholesale Services via terrestrial fibre network.
While submarine communications cables are used to connect countries and continents to the Internet, terrestrial fibre optic cables are used to extend this connectivity to landlocked countries or urban centers within a country with submarine cable access.
What is said to be clear at the moment is that certain legislators considered to be heavyweights in this country are seriously opposed to the unbundling plan that the Government wants to roll out. Engaging one of them, he intimated that such a move could be compared to someone who wants to commit suicide. He furthered that if Government treads on that path then it will be tantamount to compromising the country’s sovereignty and security; in short it will be suicidal to the economy.
There is a school of thought that has convincingly argued that one of the reasons why Government sometimes decide to unbundle certain institutions is simply because those institutions have become more of liabilities than assets. In other words, these institutions, which are expected to be generating revenue are most times in deficits, always yearning for Government bail outs. A reference was made to the one time National Power Authority (NPA) which, because it became a liability, Government decided to bring in the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA) and Electricity Generating and Transmission Company (EGTC).
If indeed this is the case with SALCAB then there must be something seriously amiss. From what was understood, SALCAB Management is owed about Le39 Billion for operating and managing the E-governance network which is hosting and providing bandwidth capacity for all Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). Lamentably, these MDAs have reneged to pay SALCAB what they owe and such obviously is impinging on the institution’s strength to operate as its mandate dictates.
A Social Commentator commented that, if this is the situation, then the Government must find ways and means to offset that debt but to take the decision to unbundle SALCAB as an alternative to solve the issue is considered not to be the best option.
From an investigation this medium conducted, it was mooted that initially the Minister of Information and Communications, Mohamed Rado Swaray, was not supportive of the idea but later became a turncoat and is now pushing hard for such to transpire.
If what this medium was told is anything to go by then it appears that the situation has reached a point where even the current Chairman of SALCAB, Sorie Fofana, is not comfortable with the idea and as such has communicated to President Bio through a letter sent to him stating obvious reasons why such should not come to pass.
Another matter that was divulged to this Press has to do with the recruitment a private company, Niche Technologies as a technology partner of the Ministry of Information and Communications. It has been rumoured that the company is owned by a very good friend of the Minister of Information and Communications.
Niche Technologies, it is alleged, has benefited from the award of several contracts offered by the Ministry of Information and Communications through the sole sourcing method of procurement.
Morie Momoh, who happens to be the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communications is said to have doubts as to how the contracts were awarded in the Ministry immediately when he was transferred to that institution nearly three months ago.
How several contracts were awarded by the Ministry of Information and Communications is being probed into.
