GAMTEL GOES BANKRUPT!!!

….Low Staff Morale Undermines GAMTEL’S Progress

By Landing Badjie, Banjul

The low staff morale, decay of infrastructure and dwindling public satisfaction in the Gambia's main telecommunications company are becoming more pronounced in recent days than ever before.The staff of Gamtel are unhappy that they are no longer enjoying their traditional benefits that had made Gamtel once a much-sought after entity in The Gambia.

The Gamtel House  in Banjul is threatened with being plunged into a serious state of dereliction whilst the Gamtel  Westfield branch  is under serious constrain regarding the booth-customer ratio. The branch has five booths- 31, 32, 33,34 and 35- but all the five booths are out of commission save booths 31 and 32. A staff of the branch told our man in Banjul that the situation had to be expected as Gamtel had just gone under a new management.

" I think you very well know that Gamtel has been privatised and therefore it will take some time before things are up and running as expected," said the staff.

But this is in stark contrast to the very purpose that Gamtel was said to have been privatised for. The architects of the privatisation campaign said Gamtel was no longer profitable and that the company needed to be privatised to make it more efficient and responsive to the needs of the clientele. They went ahead and privatised the company without public knowledge.

Today, the performance of Gamtel is far worse than any time in the history of the company. The staff are disillusioned, dissatisfied and worried  as the company is now riddled with fragile job security and low incentives. Since the privatisation of Gamtel, a number of people, including top and middle-level staff members were made to go home. Katim Touray, a former managing director of Gamtel and a caboodle of staff were given their exit orders and told that the company no longer needed their services.The development happened shortly after the Jammeh Goverment had ceded all the powers of control over Gamtel to foreign investors.

The leader of the main opposition in The Gambia had strongly criticized  the Jammeh administration 's move to privatise Gamtel under pretext of 'unprofitability'. Ousainou Darboe was even more particular about the transparency of the entire transaction as everything had taken place behind close doors.

Meanwhile, Gamtel is struggling to properly restore internet services in the country which were very slow for the past days. The company has reportedly had one of its facilities in Basse vandalised. " Efforts are well in progress to restore the services to the delight of the people," said a Gamtel staff.