Paramount Chief Bai Bairoh Mabolleh Anshenni III says ADDAX Bioenergy is in “a limbo” and that the potential new buyers say they will lay off the entire workforce.
One of the host Paramount Chiefs of ADDAX’s vast swathe of sugarcane farmland was speaking in Makeni at the launch of a monitoring report on the Swiss company put together by the Sierra Leone Network on the Right to food (SiLNoRF).
His statement comes in the wake of Addax announcing that it would lay off over one thousand workers at the end of June.
“Actually, Addax is presently in serious limbo. Even those holding senior positions are uncertain about their fate with the new company coming to take over the operations of the Addax” the chief disclosed.
He said that SUNBIRD, the new company expected to take over Addax, had confirmed that they had no workers at the company and that all they were interested in was a “skeletal staff” with all others to be laid off.
He said that on the 13 June 2016, a serious tussle ensued between the company officials and employees with the situation only quelled through the interventions of both the ministers of the information agriculture, according to SiLNORF press release.
The Paramount Chief said despite the coming of addax to his community having brought about many “positive developments”, there remained challenges being faced by community people and landowners. He lamented over the lack of employment for locals with only “menial jobs” made available to the indigenes.
In his statement on the legal implications of Addax being bought over or closing down, the Director of the advocacy group NAMATI said the Government of Sierra Leone had signed a Lease Agreement in 2010. Lawyer Sonkita Conteh said that under that agreement the Government gave many tax exemptions including on import duties.
He said the Agreement also made it compulsory for the government to buy electricity that should be produced by Addax.
He warned that the Agreement was only between ADDAX and the Sierra Leone government with no provision for transfer to another company. He stressed that any company that was to take over Addax would be equired to sign a new Agreement with the Government.
He disclosed that one difficult thing about the Agreement is that it is not in the public domain as it is not registered with the office of the Registrar General at Roxy Building even though the law provided for that.
Conteh said he had raised this issue with ADDAX and its lawyers but nobody seemed to know where the Lease was. “Technically this means that company is not registered at that level and therefore, the lease Agreement is voidable. That is any one of the parties involved could bring it an end,” Sonkita said.
He said the most important thing was that the second Agreement signed with chiefdom councils made no provision for anything that would happen to ADDAX, something he said also provided for any other company that would succeed the Swiss bioenergy company. He urged the landowners and local authorities to review the agreement if Sunbird takes over or if Addax comes again to them for a renewal.
(C) Politico 30/06/16
