By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
Three local companies that manufacture vehicle license plates have halted production as protest against government’s decision to award the contract to a company known as Autospect.
The three companies, Bilhaq Trading, Sarah Trading Company (STC) and International Association Services (IAS) announced their decision at a joint press conference on Thursday.
According to the companies the Ministry of Transport awarded the contract to produce the number plates to Autospect without opening any bidding process.
According to a letter that was written to the companies on the 23 of January, Autospect will start production within the year, which gives the companies just months’ notice to shut down their work.
Sheikh Fofanah, Chief Executive of Bilhaq Trading said: “They gave the contract to the company without any procurement. At least we would have been satisfied if a bidding process was opened and we lost. But the minister just took the contract and handed it to a Lebanese company.”
Samuel Johnson, Chief Executive of the IAS said they had been trying to meet with the Minister of Transport, Kabineh Kallon, for months when they suspected the move.
Johnson said they only succeeded to meet him on Wednesday.
“We met with the minister and he said he had never seen our contract. All the promises and nice words they were telling us at the ministry were not genuine. He told us that even if we go to the president, he would not listen to us, he would only listen to him, because he is the minister”, Johnson said.
The three companies say they have been producing number plates on behalf of the Sierra Leone Roads Safety Authority since 1999.
They said that at the start of their production they had a contract in place with the SLRSA which was renewed every five years until 2014.
They said that since 2014 their contract had been renewed annually based on performance.
The manufacturers say the SLRSA has not given them any indication that they were not doing a good job.
Isha Sheikhe, a representative of STC said the decision to give the contract to a foreign company could have a devastating effect on their companies.
“If we don’t get the contract, we will have no option but to lay off our staff and struggle to sell our machines as spare parts.”
All three companies say they have up to 30 people working on their behalf, who could lose their jobs.
“We are selling a number plate for Le75,000, Autospect will be selling the same plate for over Le 300,000,” she added.
Politico could not reach Autospect for their side.
However, we contacted the Deputy Minister of Transport, Sadiq Sillah who he said: “We don’t sign contracts with companies. They must have dealt with an agency; in this case it will be SLRSA.”
The companies said SLRSA had been assuring them that their contracts would not be nullified before this sudden twist.
Abdul Karim Dumbuya, Public Relations Officer of the authority cited a law which he said supported SLRSA to hire other companies to do the same job.
He was speaking during the press conference on Wednesday.
Politico could not get him to elaborate.
Johnson from IAS said they were not ruling out an option of taking the SLRSA to court.
Fofanah said every six months they pay Le260 million to the SLRSA as rent and commission.
“We also pay our taxes worth millions of Leones. We pay up to Le 120 million for every consignment that we get,” he added.
The cancellation of the contract will come as a serious blow to indigenous companies and contribute to poverty, the companies said.
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