Continuing his testimony at the Commission of Inquiry, Sennesie Kallon former Director General of the National Telecommunications Commission (NATCOM) has testified that he cannot confirm that the amount read was paid as litigation fees. Responding to questions posed by State Counsel Robert B. Kowa during examination in chief, the witness said that it is correct that NATCOM entered into an agreement with Slone International Limited for the monitoring of the international gateway (IGW) in 2014. He went on to say that the said agreement was terminated and that termination necessitated some legal proceedings against NATCOM. NATCOM he said retained the services of a legal firm whilst also ceded to the intervention of the Attorney General’s Office, because a legal action was instituted by Slone in the Courts of Sierra Leone for the termination by NATCOM.
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Referencing the Report on the Technical Audit of the Social Security, Telecommunications, Civil Works and Energy Sectors which is an exhibit before the Commission, Lawyer Kowa questioned whether the witness can confirm, based on the report that NATCOM incurred legal fees of US$ 1,548,454.17 for both local and international lawyers. On the issue of retention of the legal firm, Lawyer Kowa further probed whether there was any advertisement placed for the retention of these lawyers. He replied that there was no procurement process initiated for legal services outside Sierra Leone. “The selection of the legal firm outside Sierra Leone was reported by the Chairman of the Board during one of the Board meetings” he said. The Commission he said has two in-house lawyers as employees and at some stage they had on board another lawyer that helped with the litigation on behalf of NATCOM, but apart from that the Commission has always had external help with any legal matters. “Was the external lawyer that was retained involved in this external IGW proceeding” Lawyer Kowa asked. “Yes, to the best of my knowledge by the name of PA Momoh Fofana as he was taken to explain the laws of Sierra Leone to the external legal firm that was engaged by NATCOM” Kallon testified. Lawyer Kowa asked him to clarify what he meant by was taken, “was he contracted during this issue or was he a retained solicitor?” The witness replied that to the best of his knowledge he cannot recollect the instance of having retained Pa Momoh as a legal retainer as it were. “I want to believe that he was only engaged for the purpose of clarifying the laws of Sierra Leone to the external legal firm.” When asked whether he knows the legal firm of Jenkins Johnston and Co and if they were the legal firm retained, Kallon replied that they were retained as the legal firm in Sierra Leone but he cannot tell whether they were involved in the IGW litigation. “I cannot remember exactly whether after his demise that NATCOM sought to retain the legal services of Ajibola Manley Spaine who got involved with the Slone matter” he said. At the mention of Lawyer Manley Spaine’s name, Lawyer Kowa put to the witness that Lawyer Manley Spaine was only asked to write an opinion. Kallon agreed that he was called upon to write an opinion but that he also knows that the Commission formally retained him. “What I cannot say or remember is the sequence of events between the death of Jenkins Johnston and the recruitment or seeking the services of Lawyer Manley Spaine.” On 20th February 2014, NATCOM entered into an agreement with Slone Limited for the supply of quality of service monitoring system. On 13th June 2014, a supplementary agreement was entered into between NATCOM and Slone Limited. This supplementary agreement introduced the design, build, delivery and operation of a platform to monitor international and domestic voice and data telecommunications traffic. An amendment dated 12th August 2014 between NATCOM and Slone Telecom Limited for the monitoring of the international gateway Schedule 8, on government tariff was amended by deleting US$ 13,200,000,000 per (thirteen million, two hundred thousand) to US$ 10,000,000,000 (ten million). In a letter Ref.: NTC/ADG/IGMS/004 dated 13th October 2015 and issued to all the MNOs, the then Acting Director General instructed the MNOs to put on hold all transactions with Slone Limited for the international gateway monitoring. Due to NATCOM putting a hold on all the activities of the international gateway monitoring system, Slone Limited sought for arbitration at the secretariat of ICC International Court of Arbitration. The recruitment process of and the basis for the charge rate to these lawyers were not available for audit and therefore could not establish whether it was done in accordance with the law.
By Zainab Iyamide Joaque
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