In an advance world like ours, with the growing influence of globalisation, institutions like GAMTEL/GAMCEL and NAWEC occupy a very significant part in the development drive of a developing country like The Gambia; and, no doubt, this perception forms the basis of the priority areas of our government’s development agenda.

 The successful implementation of national dreams like the Silicon Valley, an initiative of the leadership of this country, is strongly dependent on formidable service provisions, in terms of electricity and telecommunications, among a host of others. This forms the driving force behind the uncompromising stance of the APRC government.

While GAMTEL/GAMCEL have done well even prior to the second republic, receiving an even more rigorous support from this government; NAWEC has struggled all along, only gaining momentum thanks to the personal intervention of the president himself. GAMTEL though,  stumbled a little bit before cruising briefly to glory. However, just recently, it hit hard times, and this warranted government to make the prudent decision of overhauling its management system.

But despite all these efforts by government, people still complain, and, of course, their complaints are mostly genuine. It is either a network problem today or a country-wide internet problem tomorrow. The problems are continuous and frustrating. However, what we do not know is that the problems are not the fault of government as such; they are in fact perpetuated by unscrupulous saboteurs within the society. Such people constitute saboteurs of national development. And interestingly, these institutions themselves harbour these saboteurs.

Extreme greed, powered by selfishness and lack of patriotism, coupled with unawareness on the part of some sections of the public, are responsible for this trend. GAMTEL is not only suffering from acts of theft of its technology, but some people, out of untold wickedness, mess up with the operations of this company. And for NAWEC, copper wires and aluminium fibres are the targets; although sometimes some individuals unintentionally tamper with these NAWEC facilities. There are a whole lot of obstacles faced by these institutions; and it all boils down to sabotage.

But as we have always held, the general public owe it to these institutions just as much as the institutions owe it to Gambians; saboteurs are part of this very society that faces all these problems. The question remains: is it worth it that we cover up for these unscrupulous people at the expense of our discomfort? How many of us have exercised our civic duties to take saboteurs to task? These are issues that need discussing as part of the general effort of helping the appropriate authorities to make informed decisions about what is actually responsible for their poor performances.

Negligence will be tantamounting to aiding the culprits, and we should consider ourselves as accomplices of these treacherous and criminal individuals if we fail to expose them. In the same vein, it will help a great deal if the managements concerned also come out plain about cases concerning sabotage within their operational activities, lest they all appear guilty in the end.

The service was launched by Dr. Malick Njie, Secretary of State for Health and Social Welfare on behalf of His Excellency the President of The Republic of The Gambia at PURA’s head office situated at 1 Paradise Beach Palace, Bertil Harding Highway, Kololi.

The new service is designed to put in place an impartial and effective consumer complaints resolution mechanism related to telecommunications, electricity, water and sewerage services as mandated by the PURA Act 2001.

With the service, the general public will be able to access a free service that helps them resolve problems that their service providers failed to solve for whatever reason. In furtherance of the service, customers are advised to dial number 148 free of charge,from any telephone handset, or walk into PURA’s head office, or send a fax or email in which they can lodge complaints that will be handled and resolved within a clear timeline.

Currently PURA regulates the following sectors and utilities, NAWEC, GAMTEL, GAMCEL, AFRICELL, COMIUM and all Internet Service Providers.

In his welcoming remarks, Mr. Alagi B. Gaye, Director General of PURA, indicated that the principle that underlines PURA’s complaints resolution mechanism is that Helpdesk is not a first port of call for complaints. He explained that complaints must first be lodged with the regulated service provider whose services or products they are not happy or satisfied with, adding that after doing so and only when specific time has elapsed, the complaint could use PURA’s Help Desk service, by either dialling number 148 or walking to their offices and seeing a Customer Affairs Assistant or sending an email to: 148@pura.gm

“From today onwards, consumers of communication services, that is: telephone (fixed and wireless), prepaid calling cards, Internet services (i.e. VSAT domestic services), and consumers of electricity, water and sewerage services who are dissatisfied with services rendered to them by any operator or service provider, have the right to seek remedy of the situation by lodging a complaint to the Public Utility Regulatory Authority (PURA).”

He added that the particulars of the complaint, such as name, address, phone number, fax or email, must be furnished, as well as the problem being faced and its duration.

He revealed that among the things customers could complain about are: wrong billing, arbitrary disconnection of service, care free attitude towards genuine complaints, poor service delivery, untruthful and deceptive advertisement and supply of substandard equipment.

Other speakers included Mr. Siring Cham, Permanent Secretary, Department of State for Finance and Economic Affairs, Mr. Abdoulie Touray, Chairperson, Board of Directors of PURA.

Residents of Banjul yesterday experienced serious water shortage, prompting people to walk from Banjul to the GGC headquarters in Saaro whilst others had to travel all the way to their relatives in the Kombos to fetch water for their various households.

Reports reaching this paper have it that the water problem was brought about by the sudden bursting of the main pipe around Mile 2.

Our Sources further stated that the officials of the National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC) were busy working at the area to bring normalcy in the situation.

Some of the residents who spoke to The Point have called on NAWEC to remedy the situation as soon as possible, commending officials of the Fire and Ambulance Services for their assistance during the difficult moment.

Meanwhile, at the time of going to press, reports from Banjul have spoken of the situation having been remedied as flow of water resumed.

President Jammeh last Thursday in receiving members of the Association of Gambian Manufacturers at State House disclosed that by 2009, electricity tariffs would be drastically reduced for customers, with a special concession for industries operating in The Gambia.

The President made it clear that the tariff reduction comes in the heels of a major breakthrough in the energy sector, which has been revamped over the past three years.

This propitious development seen by many as a move in the right direction has sparked a flurry of discussion concerning the creation of a robust economy that will enable more competition in business. Without power, business grinds to a halt. And when businesspeople have to pay a lot more for power, the economy totters on the brink of stagnation. Getting power on all the time and making it affordable by all are essential to our economic growth and prosperity.

For the Association of Gambian Manufacturers, the high cost of production arising from the high electricity tariffs must have been a nightmare. Though they have to cope with the nightmare until the end of this year, they are now more hopeful of better days in 2009.

It is not only businesspeople who groan under the yoke of almost prohibitive electricity tariffs. The ordinary people are also suffering in silence. With the rising costs of foodstuffs, many people are really finding it difficult to settle their electricity bills at the end of the month. Many households are now learning to do without electricity, which is too bad.

As well as bringing down electricity tariffs, the authorities should also consider reducing the high tax on goods and businesses. This has the great advantage of attracting more investors and investments into the country.

But more importantly, we hope that the promise of the electricity tariff reduction will be kept in 2009

“No nation was ever ruined by trade.”

Benjamin Franklin

Ousman Jammeh, the secretary of state for Petroleum and Energy, accompanied by Momodou Jallow, the managing director of NAWEC and other senior staff of NAWEC, yesterday visited the Fajikunda Health Centre, following a scary electricity sparks on Sunday night, which sent patients and staff out of the facility.

The visit was meant to inspect cause of the incident and map out plans to end its reoccurence there.

Upon arrival at the health centre, the SoS and his delegation were received by Julah Jaiteh, the officer-in-charge of the health centre, who thanked the delegation for reaching out to them.

She reconfirmed that the incident occurred on Sunday night, while she was in her room and heard people shouting fire! fire!. According to her, upon her arrival at the facility, she saw the patients and nurses on duty running out of the ward shouting.

“I then quickly asked the ambulance driver to switch-off the main meter which automatically turned-off the high supply in the health centre”, she explained. The NAWEC personnel were also called in and did some wiring job and the light came back.She expressed hope that such a thing would not happen again.

For his part, Ousman Jammeh, the secretary of state for Petroleum and Energy, said the visit was due to the report he gathered about the incident and advised that certain facilities should be carefully looked at and installed at appropriate places to avoid panics in cases of emergency.

He advised the health centre maintenance team to re-locate those switches which were said to be installed by Italians in the health centre outside the wards to a suitable places. He urged the health centre officials to alert NAWEC on such emergency cases on 169.
SoS Jammeh assured the health centre management of his department’s readiness to help them fix the problem as quickly as possible, even though the problem happened out of their jurisdiction.

Momodou Jallow, the managing director Director of NAWEC, informed the team that the problem was not from the NAWEC, but it was internal “There was a short circuit after the meter which was an underground connection, believed to have been installation long time; for more than 20 years. Naturally, things may happen, but when it happens, the people in charge should alert them so that they can come in to help in where it is necessary. This is why we advised consumers to inspect installations and make sure that they up grade them when they increase the appliances”, he urged.

Mr Jallow expressed his department’s resolve to make sure that electricity supply is normal. “The most important thing that I would like the public to note is that, our work at NAWEC is only limited to supplying the flow of electricity up to the meter, but we are not responsible for any internal installation of facilities. So anything after the meter is the responsibility of the consumer. This is why with regards to all installations, it is important to inspect the installed facilities and appliance in the consumers premises”, he further advised.

Mr Jallow went on to explain that they are aware of the fact that fingers are pointed at Nawec for any little problem. He described this as a challenge and assured that they will continue to sensitise the public about their operations.