Gambia-L: Because of lack of access to the Net these days, I am sending the e-mail below unedited. It came from a source in the Gambia. Take note that it was sent to me on Wednesday. Again, just ignore the typographical/spelling mistakes. Ebrima _______________________________________________________________ >From: >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: The bankcruptcy and ineptitude of GAMTEL >Date: Wed, 02 Aug 2000 > >Ebrima, >I am sure most of you who tried reaching Gambia by telephone and/or fax >these past months have been experiencing the frustrations of your life. >The GAMTEL you left behind and the one we have now are like night and day. >At its inception, GAMTEL was considered as having the best telephony after >the Republic of South Africa. Well, thanks to Yahya Jammeh and his corrupt, >inept and irresponsible regime, GAMTEL is facing its worse financial crisis >in its brief history. First, the Transition Team under the AFPRC used the >parastatal as the primary milking cow in furtherance of the AFPRC >ill-conceived programmes and their individual get-rich quick schemes, >lining their pockets with the revenue generated by GAMTEL. Amongst its >ill-conceived policies were the decision to have GRTS as a subsidiary of >GAMTEL,syphoning much-needed cash to finance the Radio and Television which >are the main instruments of propaganda and repression of the Jammeh regime. > GAMTEL was forced to finance the Television Headquaters/studios near the >MDI which has been at a stand still since October of last year due to lack >of funds from mother GAMTEL. The company is left with no money for basic >maintenance of the instrastructure and equipment. To make matters worst, a >sub-distribution hub was erected at Kanilai to service Yahya Jammeh and the >residence of Kanilai whose calls are subsidised by GAMTEL. If you call from >Kanilai, you pay less than if you were to call from say Brikama, not to >speak of Banjul. Yahya Jammeh has distorted the entire economy and the >operations of GAMTEL. So next time you try to reach your dear ones in The >Gambia after an hour of trying, just think of Jammeh holding on to nothing >less than 10 seperate lines(national and international) for his exclusive >use. He needs those secured lines to make his deals from Milan to Taipei. >GAMTEL is broke, so are the other parastatals, thanks to the rampant >corruption never seen before in The Gambia-a level of corruption encouraged >and with the active participation of Yahya Jammeh. FOR YOUR INFORMATION, >GAMTEL IS NOW RANKED 15 IN AFRICA AND STILL ON THE SKID. ONCE THE CROWNED >JEWEL OF GAMBIAN PARASTATAL UNDER JAWARA IS NOW THE LAUGHING STOCK OF THE >TELECOMMUNICATION INDUSTRY. A sad story indeed. > ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface ----------------------------------------------------------------------------