Sierratel is a State Owned Enterprise under the supervision of the Ministry of Information and Communication, charged mandate of providing efficient telecommunication service to the public.
As a public service agency, Sierratel has always been in the news not for the good reason and this time around for the wrong reason that have to do with multiple administrative issues, ranging from over expenditures from the consolidate revenue fund with poor service delivery at expense of the state. That is to say Sierratel offer no value for money.
One such victim of the poor service being provided by the network is Forum Newspaper, whose internet facility is always down even when it is fully recharged, the device network indicator always shows red light, meaning there is no service.
Yet staff at the company from top management level continues to receive huge sum of United States Dollars as monthly salaries at the expenses of state even though efficient service are not provided by the network.
The department is expected to serve as the gateway for service providers like Orange, Africel, Qcell, etc. Today Sierratel has been caught right in the middle of the trap. Forming those institutions is to stimulate growth and development in terms of providing telecommunication services and jobs for the jobless. But unfortunately it purpose is not realized under the Ministerial leadership of Mohamed Rado Swaray who actually supposed to be supervising the agency.
Forum Newspaper is less interested in the battle and rift at Sierratel, which is probably responsible for its untimely collapse, due to lack of fuel to run the company’s most of the vital machineries, caused by weak and incompetent leadership therein.
Poor management currently militating against the principles of good working relationship, making it difficult to tell who is totally in control at Sierratel, is also a serious concern to the public and subscribers in general with no exemption of Forum Newspaper.
This medium thus urging top management staff down to the least staff to put aside their individual personal indifferences and serve the purpose for which they were hired and are being paid hugely from tax payers’ moneys. For the fact that there is no healthy working relationship, no board to regulate their activities, and as a result, there is poor accountability of its administration in terms of effective utilization of resources, all you expect from Sierratel is nothing else but mere poor service.
It is the dream of the President Julius Maada Bio that this year will be the year of delivery and productivity without complaint; and that every incorporated member holding public office in Sierra Leone should be ready to give account of his stewardship.
And for Sierratel to have a staff of 332 permanent employers, of which 2 local contractors and three chiefs respectively to take care of the management of the resources, considering the existing economic trend in the country, and in the company, it shows that Sierratel needs a complete overhaul and a bailout to manage its financial exigency to avoid a total collapse.
Sierratel is on the process to be privatized by the National Commission for Privatization (NCP) which will define the terms and conditions of the workers in terms of duration of contracts. Again, it depends on whosoever is willing and able to take up the responsibility of the new company.
Seventy six Million Leones (Le 76, 000,000.00) was the initial payment to all the cleaners in the company, but immediately the former Managing Director Mr. Kallon was changed, the amount paid to cleaners was inflated to two hundred and fifty seven million Leones (LE 257,000,000.00) for their cleaners nationwide. The amount was again reduced by the new Managing Director Mr.Foday Sankoh to the original amount of Seventy Six Million Leones (Le 76,000,000.00), which created the whole episode of financial sabotage surrounding Sierratel.
With establishment for several years, Sierratel cannot boast of fuel to run the company. The cost of fuel is high and they cannot afford it. Again there should have been a change in technology but there is no money in the company to facilitate the replacement, which has almost frustrated the consultant Mr. Bockarie Momoh. The consultant made several strides to get the management involved but it was fruitless. Consultant Momoh is currently using his personal laptop computer to do the work of the company. He had been reporting the issue but no due diligence given. These clearly imply that there is a huge financial mismanagement at Sierratel and the sitting management must be in position to give account of its leadership especially in the areas of financial and other resources utilizations at the agency.
You cannot expect to get result from such institution when the management lacks the ability to work as a team, and not providing a comprehensive account of its stewardship. So the more reason Forum Newspaper joins the call for the Anti-Corruption Commission to look into the managerial affairs of Sierratel to ascertain where public funds have been spent by managers and directors at the company.
With the perplexing financial status of the company it is very challenging for Sierratel retirees receive their end of service benefits and the company is therefore spending Three Million Leones (Le 3, 000,000.00) every month to offset other financial responsibilities.
“We are now operating by bailing out system” said, the Chief Finance Officer John Conteh.
And again, the Internal Financial Auditor is facing hell to audit the company, due to lack of willingness by the authorities to give him the required information. The poor coordination of the company is one of the factors responsible for the poor performance of the company, and the inability to produce the desired result.
The management staff are receiving a monthly take home of up to $5000 (Five Thousand United States Dollars), which is responsible for Sierratel’s present financial position. But why wasting such amount on a company that is not result oriented? Tax payers’ money must be utilized effectively and efficiently.
Government should be looking out for ways to revitalize the company, rather than allowing it to die easily without providing the requisite function to the economy. The whole company should be revisited with the needful changes to see where Government can make meaningful reforms. Lot of resources have been spent with little or no delivery from the company.
If again the company does not worth its purpose, then it is left with Government to privatize or disband it rather than continue to incur wastage of public funds. Controlling the wage bill calls for immediate action to Government excesses. Government cannot continue to give jobs in an institution that is not viable and cannot produce the expected result.
