By Aminata Phidelia Allie
The African Union (AU) Ebola response team in Sierra Leone seems to be in deep waters as issues of debts owed by it to various hotels and transporters have been unfolding over the last few weeks.
The AU is Africa`s premier continental bloc, comprising 54 member countries, and it is one of many international organizations presently in the country to help fight the Ebola epidemic.
The AU have been accused of coming late into the fight which has seen the UK, US and other western countries already poured hundreds of millions of US on top of their manpower. But in addition to this late intervention by the continental body, it appears to be bracing up for a far more scandalous legacy relating to what is on record as the worst ever Ebola outbreak in the world to date. Dozens of businesses, including hotels and transport providers in the country, have accused them of owing millions of dollars in debt.
The affected businesses have formed a single negotiating group and Osman Lamin-Sidique, the General Manager of MJ Motel in Kabala, in the north of the country, is serving as their spokesman.
He told Politico that the AU owed about 200 hotels plus transport owners, amounting to over US$3million.
Mr Sidique revealed that he alone was owed US$ 55,000, being arrears of payment for services provided to 12 AU paramedics. He said he was initially owed US$ 70,000 but that the AU made an advance payment of US$14,000 before the guests were admitted into his motel last December.
The AU was apparently forced to pay another US$10,000 a few weeks ago following media publications on the issue.
“Since they were delaying payment of their debt to us even after writing to them and going to their office on several occasions, we have now turned to the media,” Mr Sidique lamented in an interview with Politico.
He said his hotel only agreed to lodge the paramedics because they thought highly of the AU and believed them to be a credible international organization.
“But they have disappointed us and our confidence in them is gone,” the hotel manager said, adding that he has already thrown his AU guests out of his motel.
At the time they were making the second payment, the MJ Motel boss said, senior AU representatives in the country had assured the local services providers that they were trying to process payment at their headquarters in Addis Ababa.
“They told us they might be ready in two weeks which should expire this Friday or Saturday,” he said. However, Sidique added, they have been worried by reports indicating that the AU team was on the verge of leaving the country any time soon.
“If they leave the country with our money, we might never get it. That is why we want it now,” he said.
The Hill Valley Hotel in the west end of Freetown is another affected business but its management, unlike that of the MJ Motel, prefers to remain patient. They still have AU paramedics lodged there. But, according to Umaru Jalloh, General Manager, they planned to take drastic actions that might change the situation.
“I still trust in them because they are a reputable organization. I am also doing it for my country,” he said, before revealing plans of cutting down certain privileges, including food supply, to the AU guests in their hotel rooms. This is supposed to take effect on Tuesday, March 17.
“We will even stop providing them with fuel for the vehicles that takes them around,” Jalloh said.
Hill Valley Hotel, according to the manager, planned to even go further than this. He said they would go to court if need be.
“I am positive the court would make them pay if they refuse to pay willingly,” Jalloh told Politico.
As for the proprietor of Morea Hotel in Kambia, the humanitarian side of him would not allow him throw the 12 medics out of his hotel, as much as he wanted to do so. But Dr. Alusine Fofanah said his hotel would stop providing the guests with food and other essential services starting March 17.
He said they would then give them an ultimatum to pack out of the hotel failing which they would employ legal means against the medics and the AU.
Before the AU medics were sent to lodge at his hotel, Dr. Fofanah said, AU officials made an advance payment. But the medics requested that their rooms be fitted with air conditioners and Dr. Fofanah said he used almost all the advance payment to meet their demands. A total of 10 ACs were fixed in 10 rooms, he said.
Fofana is also scared over rumors about the medics leaving the country any time soon.
The African Union Support to Ebola Outbreak in West Africa (ASEOWA) came into being through an Executive Council Decision at the AU`s Sixteenth Extraordinary Session, held on 8th September 2014 in Addis Ababa. By then thousands of people had already died to the disease.
In Sierra Leone, the ASEOWA team manages the Magbenteh Treatment Unit in the Bombali Districts which did not begin operation until on the 16th of November 2014.
Meanwhile, at the Special Court building, where the AU country command team is housed, Dr. John Ssentamu, the head of the team, sounded unconcerned about all the allegations against his team. This may be because, as the Ugandan doctor put it, he isn’t to blame for the delay.
But he told Politico in a rather complicated interview that documents had already been processed at the AU headquarters and that payment procedures were at a final stage.
Dr John, as he is popularly known, said they (AU) had a post delivery payment agreement with the service providers. The agreement with some of them, he said, was renewable every month.
The AU team leader also noted that the agreement was for them to be provided with essential services for as long as the AU Ebola response mission would last in Sierra Leone. He said it was unfortunate therefore for some of the service providers to have stopped providing some of his colleagues with essential services.
“These people are Africans who are here to help their fellow Africans. The hotel managements’ decisions are misguided,” he said, urging the concerned hotels and transport owners to revisit their decisions.
The reluctant Dr. John wouldn’t say how soon the impasse between them and the service providers would be settled.
“I have already told you what I believe is important for you to know. I would advice you to just present the issues as I have told you. What I have not told you is not important for you to know,” he told Politico.
© Politico 17/03/15
