- UTE In The Driver Seat

Six weeks of intensive deliberations on the revitalization of the Liberia Telecommunications Corporation has ended and a committee set up to evaluate the process has submitted its findings.

The Corporation's Board members and Management held a brief closed door meeting yesterday before meeting the press.

Francis Nyepon, an official of LTC, designated as the Committee Chairman, told journalists that after the committee considered technical, financial and managerial capacities of the bidders as well as the Liberianization policy as the criteria for evaluation, three out of five applicants were selected.

He named the American owned Universal Telephone Exchange of Dallas, Texas; Huawei of Hong Kong and Infotel of Italy as the bidders selected from the five companies that took part in the bidding exercise.

"I'm not privileged to the rankings all of the three companies have been ranked but they have been given to the Board in the presence of the Contract and Monopolies Commission to make their determination", he said.

He said majority of the companies were manufacturers and suppliers of telecommunications equipment and infrastructural designers, while, some are operators of telecommunications networks and service providers.

Nyepon described the process as challenging, saying the Committee made "an excellent choice in the interest of all Liberians".

"I am now hoping that the members of the Board and Chairman Bryant would live up to the promise given the Liberian people and the world that the process will be transparent and fair to meet international bidding standard", Mr. Nyepon averred.

But an insider told the Analyst that the Universal Telephone Exchange topped its competitors with a total of 89percent while Huawei Corporation and Infotel got 79 and 66 percent respectively.

A 13-man LTC Bid and Evaluation Committee was set up recently by Chairman Bryant to oversee the bidding process within 10 days but reportedly delayed in meeting the deadline due to "administrative and operational difficulties".

Other members of the Committee were Post and Telecommunications Minister Eugene Nagbe, Cllr. Abla Williams and Edward Liberty, among others.