By Crispina Cummings
Parliamentary committee on labour and industrial relations on Friday summoned officials of ADDAX Bioenergy Company, its subsidiary and subcontractors to clarify issues regarding their operations, employment and social responsibilities.
Committee chairman, Francis Konowa, observed that one of the subcontractors PC/ISGECK Company had 211 expatriate staff and 73 national staff, stating that that was very unfair to the country.
Amadu Fofanah, MP for Constituency 109, said that most of the positions occupied by expats like accountant and storekeepers were positions for which they could find a lot of qualified Sierra Leoneans.
Responding to the queries, Structural Engineer, Ayaz Hashmi said they had brought all those expats to make work easier and had no idea of the country and its manpower.
“That is why the company brought in these staff. We have started recruiting local staff this month,” he assured.
Meanwhile, company officials were given a week to go back and bring their work permits, NASSIT records, pay slips and all those documents they could not present to the committee as requested.
All subcontractors were asked for details of their employment and were also asked to present their payslips and other relevant documents, but they informed the committee that ADDAX was responsible for most of their paperwork.
The committee expressed dissatisfaction over another contractor’s list of employees which showed that they had 124 locals and 309 expats. They observed that the number of expats was too high, exceeding the 50 expats each company should have.
Rado Yokie, MP, said “the country has a lot of companies coming into the country but they take all their monies back”. He wondered how a company could have over 300 expat staff and only 124 local staff. He said that was never possible in countries like India or in most other parts of the world.
The committee asked ADDAX through their representative, George Taylor Lewis, to make available all documents asked of them and their subcontractors.
(C) Politico 22/10/13
