South Sudan’s Information Minister recently demanded an investigation and possible expulsion of a Chinese Huawei company official only after he raised questions about a Ministry contract with another company, ZTE, according to documents obtained by Radio Tamazuj.
Huawei and ZTE are reported to be rival telecommunications companies in China. Elsewhere, Huawei has competed with ZTE and even filed lawsuits against it.
The Information Ministry has signed an agreement with Chinese ZTE corporation for a digital television project, worth about $51 million, according to a report last year. The deal was financed by the Chinese government through the Export-Import (Exim) Bank of China.
The purpose of the contract was to modernize the equipment and services of the state broadcaster.
Then on 3 October this year, an employee of Huawei company, Chen Nan, aka Sullivan Chen, sent an email to Acting Director General of Information Paul Jacob, proposing draft text for a letter to the Chinese Exim bank, to be sent by the South Sudanese information ministry to the bank.
The exact contents of this draft letter have not been made public, but two South Sudanese ministers said that the letter asked the Export-Import Bank of China to halt funding to the Digital TV project implemented by ZTE.
Huawei has described the email attachment sent by Chen as a “controversial template of letter,” acknowledging that Chen sent the letter while denying that he was acting on behalf of the company itself, according to a document obtained by Radio Tamazuj.
South Sudan’s Foreign Minister Barnaba Marial Benjamin, writing to the Chinese Ambassador Ma Qiang in a letter dated 17 October, said that Huawei claimed to have found a “big problem” in the price of the ZTE contract with the Information Ministry.
The Chinese official Chen apparently wanted the South Sudanese government to raise the matter directly with ZTE’s financier, the Exim Bank, in order to allow for investigation of the contract.
According to a copy of the letter between the two diplomats, obtained by Radio Tamazuj, Barnaba told the Chinese ambassador, “The Company asked in their letter the President of the Export-Import Bank of China to postpone the agreed funding of the Digital Migration TV Project for South Sudan.”
“The reason for the postponement, as they have alleged in their forged letter, is that they (Huawei Company) have been investigating Digital TV Projects in other African countries, and as a result, they have found what they described as a big problem about the contract price of South Sudan Digital TV Project, which is (51 million USD), for phase one, while they alleged to have received from other Professional Companies for the same Project only 20 million USD,” Barnaba wrote.
This raises questions about not only the price of the contract but also the process by which the contract was awarded to Huawei’s rival, ZTE company. It is not yet clear whether there was an open and competitive bidding process.
Following the correspondence between the Huawei employee and Ministry of Information official on 3 October, Minister Michael Makuei Lueth lashed out at Huawei for ‘falsifying and forging’ information.
Makuei called the draft letter a “forged document” and said that it indicated “bad intentions of the company toward the Government and people of South Sudan.” He also slammed Huawei for failing ot answer a summons to appear at his hoffice.
But in a reply letter dated 22 October, Huawei distanced itself from Chen’s talks with Paul Jacob, saying that Chenwas acting on his own and without the knowledge of the company management.
Huawei also said that Chen “is not even the authorized account person responsible for the Ministry of Information & Broadcast at all.”
Related:
S Sudan minister accuses Chinese company of hacking (24 Oct.)
File photo: SSTV equipment in Wau, South Sudan