BY Mama A Touray & Mustapha Jarju,
Public Utilities and Regulatory Authority (PURA) has updated the general public about the suspension of the Comium GSM Company during a press conference held on Wednesday at PURA office along Kairaba Avenue.
The suspension came after the Ministry of information received an update of the GSM Company regarding their payment for the debt which followed a suspension letter from the Ministry while the suspension took effect on Tuesday 5th October 2021.
Speaking to the media, Yusupha M Jobe Director General of PURA said, Comium approached them the last day before the Suspension with a pledge that they will make a payment of D14million out of the total amount of over D65million debt owning by Comium. “This amount is very small compared to what they owed” as per the rules and regulations, if Comium is going be given further opportunity they need to have an agreement or a plan on how they are going to pay the balance but he said this was never given to either PURA or the government.”
DG Jobe added that, Comium has disclosed to PURA that there is a particular company based in the United Kingdom that is joining its management and will provide them with funding, “the company not been present in the Gambia, PURA has no jurisdiction over it and there is no investment plan and a proper timeline on when they are going to upgrade.”
Therefore, he said, PURA has to move forward by informing the Ministry of the development and give updates of what PURA has received from Comium, “subsequent to that the Minister wrote to suspend Comium license.”,.
The DG clarified further that Comium is still allow to make further actions to remedy the situation, therefore PURA been the enforcement agency and agency for the government that oversees matters of regulations has no choice but to make sure the enforcement take place.
He went further that PURA is very concern over the situation of Comium that has over hundred staffs working for the GSM Company, but PURA is working hard in making sure both the staff and the customers of Comium will not be affected severely on their lives and livelihood with the suspension of the company. Saying “however it is under the labor laws of The Gambia that the actual dealing on how we dealt with staff going forward will be dealt with” he promised.
PURA in collaboration with the government has set up a taskforce which is looking into the matter going forward, as of now the enforcement body is ensuring compliance and making sure the law is abide by and ensuring that “Comium is off the air for the mean time” as PURA is waiting on their part of what they can do to remedy the situation. Within that the task force will be looking in to the affairs of their staff, the public and their customers.”
Moreover, Comium customers were given notice two weeks ago to either switch their subscription or move to other GSM companies in The Gambia, this is to make sure they are not in the darkness in terms of communication and PURA is making more efforts to make sure the customers of Comium are fully aware.
DG of PURA acknowledge that, if Comium comply within the period of their suspension its license can be reinstated so that they can continue operating, saying connecting people through communication is their priority and he quickly added that this cannot be done by forcefully asking people to quit to other GSM companies, but regulatory body will make sure Comium customers have the alternative to not be out of communication.
In conclusion he said Comium need to upgrade so that they can compete with other GSM providers, we are aware is not been long, they have been going through loses, “they have been making profit before but now things have reach the end where they are finding very hard to take care of issues including salaries and other things so we have to really act now to see what we can do to salvage the situation.”
