NITEL probes alleged forgery by officials
By Sonny Aragba-Akpore, Asst. Communications Editor
A SELF-CLEANSING exercise may have been initiated by the management of the Nigeria Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) as allegations that its accounts are on the red persist.
Although the probe is planned to be wholistic for now, the searchlight is beamed on the office of the general manager for legal, regulatory and licensing, which serves as the national carrier's secretariat.
The exercise was reportedly prompted by alleged falsifications and alteration of the company's vital documents such as board meetings, contract papers and court cases.
The Guardian learnt that the probe is being conducted by NITEL's security operatives who have taken custody of certain documents from the secretariat.
But the parastatal's General Manager for Legal, Regulatory and Licensing, Mr. Chris Iyorkar, has reported the matter to the management as "an invasion of his office".
In a working paper to NITEL's Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Rein Zwolsman, Iyorkar claimed that his office was invaded by people, who said they received orders from above to do so.
Reacting to Iyorkar's allegations, NITEL's spokesman, Mr. Tayo Ekundayo, described the "invasion" as official. Ekundayo told The Guardian that "there is nothing strange about it.
"The invasion was by our internal security during the course of investigation of the altered documents, which emanated from the secretariat," he said.
At press time, it was not clear when the falsifications took place and by whom, or for what purpose, but there are allegations that the episode was aimed at under-valuing NITEL ahead of its planned sale.
Already, the House of Representatives has initiated probe into the activities of NITEL under Dutch firm, Pentascope International, following allegations that the new managers were incompetent to turn the company around.
There are also speculations that the Federal Government may revoke the three-year farm-out contract for Pentascope International. The government is said to be alarmed by NITEL's debt put at N20 billion and a suit by VMobile, a Global System of Mobile Communications (GSM) operator seeking the liquidation of the company over a N2 billion debt.
Among the alleged altered documents are court suits, minutes of meeting, cases in court, agreements, resolutions of board and others.
Insiders linked the development to a grand design by some persons to under-value the company before it is sold by the government.
In his petition, Iyorkar stated that computers, a diskette box and other computer-related materials that were carted away contained sensitive information on the company and "it is the life-wire of NITEL because all matters relating to the company are stored in the Central Processing Unit (CPU). These include court cases, minutes of meetings, agreements, resolutions of board."
Iyorkar said that his department should not be held liable since no one had furnished him with reasons for the invasion.
He alleged that the invasion might not be unconnected with the recent winding-up case instituted against NITEL by VMobile.
The NITEL officials also alleged insider's abuse in the invasion as a deponent to the VMobile petition to wind up NITEL, is a brother-in-law to a member of Pentascope International management team.
Ekundayo, however, allayed the fears of the public over a petition by the workers to President Olusegun Obasanjo about the mess in NITEL.
NITEL workers under the aegis of Senior Staff Association of Utilities, Statutory Corporations and Government Companies (SSAUSGOC) had in the petition, described the organisation as being comatose.
Led by their president, Mr. Nkiru Peace Obiajulu, and General Secretary, Mr. Chubby Nwagbara, the workers alleged that the fortunes of the corporation had continued to nose-dive since the government adopted management farm-out system to Pentascope International.
Declaring a state of emergency in NITEL, the workers said the company had degenerated dangerously in the past 18 months since Pentascope International took over and called for urgent measures to check the trend.
"In strict compliance to the above, we raised alarm to alert the Managing Director/Chief Executive of NITEL on the deterioration of NITEL services vide our letter No. SSAUSCGOC / NITEL / 101 /Vol.IX/ 2004/ 4977 of September 20, 2004, which was severally copied to the Minister of Communications and Chairman of its Board and the Committees on Communications in the Federal Legislature respectively, and another separately to the Chairman of the Board of NITEL on the deplorable situation in NITEL vide our letter No. SSAUSCGOC /NITEL/ 03/ Vol.IX/ 2004/ 4999 of October 5, 2004.
"While the last mentioned letter is yet to be replied, the management of NITEL in a letter signed by its Chief Financial Officer on Re: Alarm Over NITEL Services No.CEO/ U.2A / T.7/ Vol.1/ Reg3261/ 186 of September 29, 2004 sent a diatribe to the association debunking its claims rather than appreciating the impact of the alarm and taking steps to improve NITEL service," the workers added.
Obiajulu said since truth cannot be swept under forever, emerging facts had exposed the management of Pentascope International as not being the messiah of NITEL, thus the earlier stand of the union before their appointment in 2003 had been indicated.
The workers told President Obasanjo that Pentascope International was commissioned by his administration in April 2003 as external management contractors to manage and re-engineer NITEL for three years preparatory to its privatisation consequent upon the earlier botched exercise in 2002.
"We are well informed that you hesitated over the appointment of Pentascope but later changed your mind due to the misinformation from certain quarters. This was in spite of SSAUSCGOC's opposition based on reliable information from its International Trade Union Secretariat, which we are affiliated to, that Pentascope International was then a newly-formed telecoms consulting firm with an abandoned church building in the outskirts of Amsterdam, the capital of Holland as its headquarters. Moreover, the company was said to have never been in the telecoms operations and hence not qualified in terms of the prerequisite in the contract of having initial experience in managing over a million telephone lines.
"This bad decision has been clearly manifested by the actions of the Pentascope International in NITEL, which portrays them as devoid of essential operational and financial management expertise.
In order to progress their avowed intent to destroy NITEL, Pentascope International management sponsored an outside agent who is a relation by marriage to the Proprietress of Pentascope to initiate legal action to wind up NITEL for indebtedness forced upon NITEL by their financial recklessness.
"The situation of NITEL is being complexed by the activities of well-placed Nigerians and their collaborators in important positions in government and the telecommunications industry, who have interests as private telecommunication operators to cause the ultimate sale of NITEL as a junk. What is the chairman of the Board of TELNET, the second bidder for purchase of NITEL in the first botched privatisation exercise of NITEL doing as the chairman of its current board? Is it right that the owner of a struggling telecommunications outfit head the executive team of the country's telecommunications industries regulatory body," it queried.
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