Telecommunication service delivery by Sierratel is nothing to be proud of as a nation. And much as that is concerned Sierratel is big shame and disgrace to Sierra Leone.
It is on record for scoring high grades for unsatisfactorily poor performance, rendering the already collapsing agency very much unserviceable to the public. No wonder the mad rush at private mobile company operators.
The State Owned Enterprise operates under the supervision of the line Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC), with Minister Mohamed Rado, alias the “big boy” in the room, as its political head.
It is expected to be delivering efficient telecommunication and internet service provisions but sadly for subscribers including Forum Newspaper, Sierratel has proved to be data credits prank player than that of a public service provider.
Such acts are unacceptable and the appropriate authorities must ensure that customers get the values of the moneys, rather than relegating to poor customer care relations with subscribers.
Besides, Sierratel always turn off its cell sites in certain areas in the east of Freetown and deprives customers from internet facility.
While other mobile operators service their customers round the clock, Sierratel devices as the so-called 4G modem hardly work after 8pm to 6am as it always show a red light indicating that there is no internet service.
Sierratel never recover lost airtimes and data forfeited by subscribers.
This situation has lasted for several years and must stop now if we were to talk about effective telecommunication and internet service provisions by Sierratel!
In order to shift the blame for poor performance, a lady at the head office on Wallace Johnson Street in Freetown called Daphne, who actually lacks the capacity to relate well with customers, rudely told embittered subscribers who had reported to the network’s customer care to registered complains relating to the inefficient and non-availability of service that Sierratel does not recover any lost airtimes nor data for customers.
Similar responds were also received by Forum Newspaper when a member of the editorial team attempted at making the same complain.
“The company does not recover data and airtime forfeited by customers as the break was caused by a natural disaster, nagged Daphne.
What Daphne failed to realize is the underperformance of the crippling Sierratel even before the collapse of Jokie Bridge, only to be blaming their gross incompetence on the unfortunate situation.
If at all Sierratel is not up to its tasks then Government must stop wasting public funds from the CRF to pay salaries to non-performers.
The system should thus be thinking of trimming staff capacity or overhang operations for now and review the modes of operations before Government continues to waste tax payers’ moneys on a mere white elephant.
Certainly Sierratel is under the spotlight now, but it is not the only nonperforming agencies operating under Minister Swaray’s MIC, as the National Telecommunication Commission, Sierra Leone Postal Service, Government Printing Department, the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation and the Sierra Leone News Agency.
The performances of all these agencies remained questionable, though they have staff frequently being paid for services they are not delivering on.
That in itself is public sector corruption which is why this medium wants to draw the attention of the Anti-Corruption Commission to such issues, so as to critically examine the operations of Sierratel, thereby ensuring that public funds are utilized for the intended purposes.
One won’t just take a huge jab that the MIC has failed in delivering on its legitimate mandates if actually departments and agencies under the line ministry are not serving to the satisfactions of the public, as Sierratel is now bent on deceiving its customers.
Sierratel supposed to be the midwife of all telecommunication and mobile operators in Sierra Leone, but it has failed to deliver services in the areas of internet service provision and cellular network even before the Jokie Bridge disaster.
No need to blame the problem on the collapse of the bridge but put such culpability on your management, starting with the very MIC, down to the least service manager at Sierratel.
The agency had existed even before customers religiously got adapted to the likes of Orange, Qcell, Africell and recently K3 tele.com, who are doing extremely well in the telecommunication industry, compared to that of Sierratel.
What a shame on you mother Sierratel for you are still far from meeting your commitments, due to poor administration, incompetent and inefficient management.
So fix your problem now, moving forward, refrain from subscribers’ airtime and data cheatings, restructure your management and improve on your services instead of shifting blames here and there.
For all customers expect from you, is excellent service delivery as Orange, Africell, Qcell and K3 Tele.com do.
