By Bill W. Cooper
An investigation done by the Inquirer Newspaper has established that the Liberia Telecommunication Authority (LTA) is said to be involved into a scandal involving potential conflicts of interest.
The controversy however centers on the authority’s acting chairman Abdullah Kamara, who concurrently holds a leadership position with SATCON, one of the country’s largest satellite telecommunications service providers.
This situation has since left many critics arguing that the dual role could undermine the integrity of regulatory oversight in a vital sector that serves as the backbone of communication infrastructure in Liberia.
Since the end of the Liberian 14 years of civil war, the country’s telecommunications sector has undergone significant transformation, attracting foreign investment and promoting competition among service providers.
The LTA, established in 2007, is tasked with regulating Liberia’s telecommunications sector, ensuring compliance with national standards, and safeguarding consumer rights as well as creates an enabling and friendly environment that promotes market driven fair competition to provide accessible and affordable communications services for all.
But the integrity of the authority now comes under serious criticism due to the alleged involvement of its chairman, Kamara, who is also the owner of a local TV station dubbed “Tamma TV”.
These dual roles are raising doubts about the LTA’s independence and credibility.
According to our impeccable source from within, chairman Kamara was earlier serving as SATCON’s board chairperson prior to his appointment by President Joseph Boakai this year, but is yet to resign his role as chairman of SATCON.
Our source further narrated that Kamara’s dual position has become a subject criticism within the context of transparency. This action has generated a serious internal problem within the Authority, due to complain from the sector actors who argued that it creates a glaring conflict of interest.
Our source maintained that the sectors’ actors further disclosed that the chairman’s role at SATCON might influence his LTA’s decision-making processes, thus undermining the authority’s role as an impartial regulator.
“So, having the chairman of the regulatory authority also serving as the chairman of a telecommunications’ provider creates an inherent conflict. How can we expect fair oversight when the person responsible for regulating the industry has vested interests in one of its biggest players?” one of the service providers, who spoke on the basis of anonymity, wondered.
Also, there are series of calls for the immediate resignation of Chairman Kamara from either of his position, so as to save the image of the LTA that has in recent, been in the news for very wrong reasons including the huge take home pay by its commissioners.
However, all efforts exerted to get Chairman Kamara’s response proved futile as this paper was informed from sources from the LTA that the Chairman is out of the country and might be back anytime soon. Investigation continues.
