The council of ministers has approved nearly USD 4.5 Million to appeal a case brought against the Government of South Sudan by the Al Fattouch Group which operated the telecoms firm Vivacell which was suspended by the government in March 2018.
South Sudan suspended the license of mobile network operator Vivacell after accusing it of failing to follow regulations, Ladu Wani Kenyi, the then director general of the National Communications Authority said at the time.
However, the Al Fattouch Group countered that their operating license waived all taxes and dragged the Government of South Sudan to the International Court of Arbitration and demanded USD 3.5 Billion in restitution but was awarded USD 1 Billion by the court.
According to Makuei, the cabinet approved the USD 4,482,500 as court fees and money to hire national and international law firms to defend the government. He said the government decided to suspend Vivacell after its license which was obtained from the New Sudan, a government that was in the vision of the Sudan People`s Liberation Movement/Army, had expired and they wanted the telecom to register in South Sudan.
“Vivacell was operating on the license of the New Sudan, which is is a country which SPLM/SPLA was fighting for, it was a license which was issued by the Civil Authority of the New Sudan,” he explained. “When that license was issued, it was bought by Vivacell/ Al Fattouch Group and they were exempted from payment of all the fees and whatever for 10 years from the date of operation. When the 10 years ended, this was the time I called the Fattouch Group and told them to now obtain the license of South Sudan, they refused and insisted that we should allow them to continue to operate on this New Sudan license.”
Minster Makuei said the stand of the Vivacell administrators was not agreeable to the Government of South Sudan.
“The New Sudan license to us as independent South Sudan is a foreign license so we did not give them that opportunity,” he said. “They insisted and I suspended their operation to bring them to the table so that we can talk and they refused and went and complained in the International Court of Arbitration.”
He revealed that Vivacell demanded USD 3 Billion in compensation but the court awarded them USD 1 Billion.
“We went there and have been following the case all these years until last year when the court awarded them USD m1 Billion and Vivacell was claiming a sum of USD 3 Billion from us,” he said. “We disputed the USD 3 billion and we even questioned the competence of the arbitrator to look into that case because we are an entity, we are a country with its laws so our law should apply in this particular case.”
“The arbitrator did not listen to us and decided to knock out the USD 2 Billion leaving USD 1 Billion and we are now appealing against the decision of the arbitrator in a Swiss court which is the center for arbitration,” he added.
Makuei stressed that they are appealing the ruling of the court on the basis that the arbitrator is incompetent.
“We are appealing because the arbitrator himself does not have the competence,” he said. “Number two, the amount which is being claimed by these people (Vivacell) is not in place and number three, we did not dismiss or finally stop Vivacell but we suspended its operation. There is a difference between suspension or dismissal or putting aside or closure.”