By Arret Jatta and Tabora Bojang


The Public Enterprises Committee of the National Assembly in its consolidated report on the performance audit report on Gamtel’s service delivery, has called on the Ministry of Finance, and the SOE commission to help the Gamtel management to recover outstanding debts owed by public institutions.
The audit conducted by the National Audit Office into arrears owed to Gamtel by government ministries and state enterprises revealed that as of February 2023, a total of D152 million is owed to Gamtel.
Additionally, the audit revealed that there were outstanding amounts of D45 million from SOEs, summing up the overall arrears to D197 million.
According to the report, the arrears stemmed from telecommunication services provided by Gamtel to these institutions encompassing both voice and internet services.
It was also observed that various private individuals and businesses also owe significant amounts to Gamtel but the audit team was unable to determine the total amount owed by these private and business customers due to Gamtel’s own lack of data on this crucial aspect of its business.
The report noted that the company does not have a credit threshold effectively indicating that customers, particularly public institutions, continue utilising Gamtel’s services without paying for them.
Moreover, the report revealed that at the time of the audit, Gamtel had no statutory debt recovery strategy to ensure that debts were efficiently and effectively recovered.