The UNITEL Scandle: OMANTEL, dissatisfied, withdraws bid
another achievement for “the under-the-table commissions lobby”
Omantel (Omani government owned company) , the second best bidder for the Yemen’s third GSM operator tender, “apologized” from accepting Yemeni government’s offer to buy the license granted to UNITEL , the company that won the tender but failed to pay the license fees of US$ 149 millions, several news sources reported.
Omantel sources say that the apology comes as the company was not satisfied from the beginning with the way the tender was awarded to UNITEL, including the fact that UNITEL is not known to be a company of experience in the field, it has no global strategic partners in the field of telecommunications and information technology, it declined to provide a a bid bond, let alone failing to meet tender requirements by paying the license fee within the period specified in tender documents. This is an addition to some “suspicious” aspects of collaboration between ministry officials and UNITEL where “unjustified” extensions were given to the company for payment that took up to 4-5 months in violation to tender conditions that state transferring the tender award to the second bidder should the first bidder fails to fulfill the license fee obligation within one month of the announcement of the tender award.
Sources close to Omantel told Elaph Arabic news website that Omantel was surprised of the illegal facilities of Yemeni officials to UNITEL tie after another which raised suspicions of Omantel and other bidders bout Yemen’s ability to run international tenders honestly and transparently.
Yemeni sources close to the telecommunications authorities said that the “ill-intended coalition” between some Yemeni officials and UNITEL had deprived Yemen from a serious bid by a respectable and credible company (Omantel which is running Oman telecommunications services) and have deprived state treasury from a US$ 100 Millions offered by Omantel in its bid. Sources said that Yemeni Ministry of telecommunications officials managed to drive away another serious bidder (name not revealed) in favor of UNITEL on pretext of having connections to a company with Israeli contacts, thus paving the way to UNITEL to win, which eventually even failed to meet the conditions and pay license fees. The sources say that this failure is another achievement “the under-the-table commissions lobby” which controls the ministry , as it did with the Yemen Mobile project, claimed to introduce “third generation technologies” to Yemen telecommunications market, and cost millions of US dollars for equipment that turned to be old, second hand, Chinese made stuff that has nothing to do with third generation technologies.
In fact, the news service said, the Oman telecommunications minister visit to Yemen last month was to deliver this “apology” and announce withdrawal from the tender, but Yemen requested Oman to delay such withdrawal for some time and not to announce it publicly, in order to cover for the UNITEL scandal until a solution is made as some sources suggest.
UNITEL, a combination of Yemeni and Chinese partners, in addition to some Gulf state investors, came in first in the bid for US$ 149 Millions as license fees, against US$ 100 Millions by the Omanis. They announced that they are planning to put company’s shares for subscription in Yemen aiming to collect further US$ 300 Millions for operation as announced last year or so.
Failing to meet conditions and promises, it is said that Saudi investors have bought UNITEL and are restructuring it to start operating in 2007, Asshoura opposition paper said. News spread that Saudi investors spoke to President Saleh about it during Prince Sultan’s, Saudi Crown Prince, visit to Hadhramout last month, and that Saleh gave the the green light to go on with it..
The tender was announced to have a third GSM operator in addition to Sabafon and Spacetel to increase competition and eventually lower prices and improve quality.
