cuts govt

Telecom Vanuatu cuts govt lines

Unpaid hills highlight dilemma

By Patrick Declolitre

Several essential services in the Vanuatu government had their phones disconnected on May 23 for failing to pay their bills.

The move has placed Telecom Vanuatu Limited (TVL) in a difficult position since, with the Vanuatu govern ment threatening to review TVL’s licens ing conditions in the island state.

The dilemma is: Where do you draw the line between business-based operat ing rules and the obligation to provide a service to the public?

Services disconnected were the Ministry of Home Affairs, Vanuatu’s central hospital in the capital. Port Vila, the police station, the fire service and the public service department. Phone calls made to these numbers were met with an answering machine message informing the caller that the number was “tem porarily out of service”.

TVL general manager Phil Richards first said that although his company was “sensitive to essential services”, it was also operating along strict business rules.

“We provide a service and we expect a payment for it. This is normal business practice,” he said.

The first government reaction was from Director of Finance Jeffrey Wilfred.

Wilfred stressed that each department had its own budget which included telecommunications expenses.

“It’s up to everyone to control their budget. Every department director is solely responsible for managing the use of telephones.

“If there’s misue, the director must

bear responsibility for that,” he said.

Wilfred added that he understood TVL’s position, saying: “TVL is a business. The fact that the government has a share in it doesn’t make any difference.”

TVL, a local private company in charge of domestic and international telecommunications, is a joint venture in which the Vanuatu government, France Cables et Radio and British Cable and Wireless each hold one-third of the shares.

There were similar disconnections of telephone services to government depart ments at the end of last year by TVL, The action saw the respective depart ments promptly settling their outstanding telephone bills.

A day after the cuts this year, on May 24, in an apparent display of considera tion, TVL reconnected essential lines, but strictly on a incoming basis; they were able to receive calls but were unable to dial out.

The situation seemed to ease when, one week later, the Finance Ministry’s second secretary, Pakoa Kaltonga, issued a strongly worded Press statement in the absence of Finance Minister Barak Sope who was at the time on an overseas tour.

Richards was also out of the country at the time, attending the Melanesian Spearhead Group summit in Papua New Guinea. In the government-run Vanuatu Weekly and on the national Radio Vanuatu, Kaltonga expressed concern over what he termed TVL’s “irresponsible act”.

The weekly quoted Kaltonga as saying the government “considers the act” of disconnecting “the lines of some of the very essential services, such as health, without consulting the government”, as “outrageous and disrespectful”.

Kaltonga added the government had decided to take “tough action” against (TVL) by reviewing their agreement and “seriously considering granting another telecommunications company licence to operate in Vanuatu to provide competi tion, as it considers the current telephone charges very expensive”.

“The government has granted (TVL) the licence to operate in Vanuatu and will not let the company dictate and run its operations,” Kaltonga added.

In a brief communique, TVL pointed out that phone lines of “several govern ment ministries and departments” were disconnected on May 23, but this fol lowed “approval from the Ministry of Telecommunications”.

Referring to Kaltonga’s comments, TVL adds the comments were “not approved for release by either the Prime Minister’s Office or the Ministry of Telecommunications, and are not a true reflection of government policy”. ■