The ongoing controversy over the outcome of a recent bid at the Liberia Telecommunications Authorities (LTA) appears to be far from over.
Monrovia, November 26, 2024/ The Public Procurement and Concession Commission (PPCC) will today, November 26, begin hearing into allegations of irregularities that led to the selection of a “Ghost” company as the winner of a recent cyber security bid at LTA.
The investigation follows a formal complaint filed by Mr. Aloysius S. Zayzay
Founder & CEO SATZ Group of Companies highlighting issues of irregularities and fairness surrounding the bid evaluation process.
The investigation is expected to see LTA’s Acting Chair at the time of the bid, Madam Angela Cassell Bush, who chairs the International Gateway System, answer questions regarding the process leading to the selection of the “Ghost Company.”
Sources have informed this paper that the LTA is expected to ask for a postponement of the hearing so that the entity’s former head of procurement, Prince Goah, can return to the country to participate.
However, in addition to Mr. Zayzay’s concerns about the bid, there are allegations of money changing hands amid the secrecy surrounding the selection of the presumed bid winner.
Mr. Zayzay’s argument is that on the day of the bid opening, only two companies were present-SATZ and Millennium. He has continued to insist that only two bids were opened on that day and that LTA should come back days later to declare a third party as a winner without a document pointing to a re-advertised bid, which speaks volumes.
This paper had written to the LTA authorities requesting information on the entire bid process, including the number of companies that bid, the number of companies present during the bid opening, the criteria used to select the winner, the name of the winner, which is yet to be made public, and whether there was a re-advertisement, assuming that none of the initial bidders met the criteria the LTA was seeking.
For more than two weeks, LTA officials have pushed the New Dawn around on the grounds that the paper had earlier published the story without contacting them.
However, LTA Commissioner Kamara had despite agreeing to have the head of procurement respond to the New Dawn questions, the LTA would later decide to respond at their own time.
Meanwhile, leaked video and voice conversations between senior LTA officials and one of the bidders and conversations between low-ranking staffers listened to by this paper are telling.
As if that was not enough, according to internal sources, the LTA leadership had sought to bypass the bidding process by requesting a no-objection for a consultant who was never part of the bidding.
This consultant is expected to undertake tasks that mirror the Terms of Reference outlined in the RFP.
Mr. Zayzay is challenging, among other things the Unfair Evaluation and Rejection of Proposal: Section 20 (Tender Evaluation Criteria) of the Request for Proposal (RFP) issued by the Liberia Telecommunications Authority which required bidders to provide CVs of the firm’s three (3) key staff members and the Unfair Evaluation and Rejection of Proposal: Section 20 (Tender Evaluation Criteria) of the Request for Proposal (RFP) issued by the Liberia Telecommunications Authority which required bidders to provide CVs of the firm’s three (3) key staff members, and SATZ Group submitted three CVs for our key staff.
