By Kemo Cham
Like many businesses in the country today, the Sierra Leone Postal Services (Salpost) is going through tough times. Depending on who you talk to, different managements have different diagnoses to their situations and Ebolaal most always takes the major share of the blame.
But the management of Salpost has much in their minds than the immediate aftermath of the epidemic for a recovery program.
Prior to the civil war, the post office was rated among the best in the world, recalls Consultant Managing Director, Sam Koroma. Over the years, he adds, it has lost its vast network, largely due to the war but also because of inability to take advantage of the advent of modern technological innovations like the e-mail.
Koroma was hired in 2013to implement a 2009 document aimed at revamping the postal service. It’s titled: ‘Revitalization of Salpost’. He has been in office for about three years now but not even his over 17 years’ experience at the United States Postal Services, it seems, is enough for this task. Koroma is, however, in no mood to accept that. He is reluctant to discuss is views on the role of government in all this but it’s clear the latter has failed to provide the requisite backing.
For instance, the national postal services has been left unprotected against a proliferation of privately run postal services like TNT, Red Coat, UPS and the increasingly domineering DHL which operates, seemingly unchecked, against a crucial provision in the current Postal Services Act, which gives exclusive rights to Salpost to handle all mails up to 2kg.
Even government institutions, which should patronise the post, prefer using other means, thereby starving a fellow government parastatal and hence the central government of much needed income.
This way, the Sierra Leone government is failing to meet its international obligations to both the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and the African Union’s postal project which member countries should implement in-depth as part ofa reform of their postal sectors, says Koroma. The MD also observes that Salpost was not included in either the national development of the government, nor the 2014 budget. He has written a paper titled: “Why Salpost should be subvented.”
“All postal services around the world are funded by government,” he points out, adding, “not a single dime since after the war has been invested in the post.”
Over 70 percent of Salpost’s infrastructure was destroyed during the war.
As a sign of frustration, Salpost is in talks with DHL, according to the MD, to outsource its Express Mail Services (EMS) component. That will naturally mean loss of income but, he insists, “it’s called alliance” … “something every business does.”
Koroma says if the post hasn’tattain its goals it’s not for lack of trying. And that’s partly why they aren’t relying entirely on government and are forming alliances. But to form alliances the institution needs money.
Postal services around the world have transformed along with technological advancement by incorporating aggressive financial services components into their operations. Salpost desires the same.
On the MD’s desk lies a well written business plan, detailing an additional 14 proposed products. 90 percent of it is ICT based. These include establishment of IT resource centers at the Post’s Freetown headquarters as well as in all provincial capitals. “This document is supposed to be complemented by a transformation plan”, the administrator waved at me from across the desk in one of the few neatly decorated offices situated in the 1964 constructed building on Siaka Stevens Street.
“The potential is unlimited. But you need the investment. If the infrastructure is not there, it’s tough for us,” he says, after a short power point presentation.
But any investment will have to take account of key issues currently plaguing Salpost. Over 90 percent of its current staff is over 50 years’ old. This doesn’t only call for fresh recruitment of younger and talented brains, but also training of these new recruits.
But before anything else, the management has got to figure out how to liquidate over Le7billion of liabilities, accrued since during the war period and its immediate aftermath. This is due mainly to benefits owed to retirees, beneficiaries of deceased and resignees.
The postal service also owes close to $2 million in international liabilities, including dues to parent bodies like the UPU and the Pan-African Postal Union.
There is also the thorny issue of the Post Office Savings Bank. Liabilities due to the bank is about Le2.5 Billion and is owed to about 15,000 clients, some of whom have died along with their hope of ever receiving their hard earned money.
The Salpost MD says a cabinet decision passed since 2011 to disburse the Le7billion only translated into Le 2billion, which was paid in tranches, making it hard to do any meaningful investment.
The management’s business plan also includes revival of the savings bank. But the country’s banking laws require the institution to reimburse its creditors before any attempt at reinvesting in the sector.
In the face of the prevailing competitive market Salpost finds itself in, it has engineered the drafting of a revised Postal Services Act and is looking forward to its speedy enactment.
Deputy Minister of Information and Communications, Theo Nicol, says government is aware of the situation and acknowledged the relaxation of the law around exclusive right for Salpost to handle up to 2kg mails.
But the minister says the government’s move was deliberate because the post wasn’t functioning effectively so that other companies took advantage of that.
“If Salpost cannot provide the service, someone has to,” he says.
He also cites the fact that Sierra Leone was operating a free market policy which allows everyone to participate in the economy.
But the deputy minister assures that government is willing to enforce any part of the law.He says the business plan on the revitalization of the post is government’s “because he (MD) got his approval from government.”
About the liabilities, the minister blames the Ebola epidemic for delay in the full disbursement and says “maybe even before Ebola ends they may receive another Le2billion.”
Back at the office of the Salpost MD, a staff seeking his signature for some payment walks in and the conversation would have attracted anyone else’s attention, not that they were speaking in secrecy.
“Aren’t they (Salpost staff) happy that we are paying salaries? At least we have been able to pay for January,” the MD remarks.
“This is December salary, sir,” the guy with the checkbook replies.
“We didn’t pay for December.”
© Politico 05/02/15
