According to the Guinean news website Aminata.com, the attention of the World Bank has been drawn to a financial scandal around fiber optic in Guinea. The failure of the renovation of two buildings of the Guinéenne de Large Bande (Guilab) by the ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and New Information Technologies, led by Oyé Guilavogui (pictured), with the view of extending submarine cables, is presumed to be at the origin of this story.

The construction works were not completed as expected despite the eight billion Guinean francs (US$ 1,103,258) raised for this project by telecom operators, the financial envelope of US$ 1,200,000 from the World Bank for the renovation and equipment of the same buildings and the € 120,000 to finance the studies and supervision of the works. Only the outside of the buildings meant to house the landing point of the fiber optic were renovated. Nothing was done on the inside.

According to Aminata.com, the failure to rehabilitate the Guilab’s buildings results from the cessation of work awarded to the firm ARTECH, hired for an offer of US$ 80,000, based on contract number 041/WARCIP/09/ 2014. The causes of the shutdown come originally from a disagreement between the firm ARTECH and the minister. Oyé Guilavogui allegedly asked the firm for 50% of the US$ 80,000 alllocated for the work. ARTECH’s refusal led to a request, from the minister to the firm to only complete half of the project and remit the other half of the funds to the minister. A new refusal from ARTECH then escalated to the cancellation of the ARTECH contract, through a letter dated 23 March 2015.

Informed of the situation by ARTECH, the resident representative of the World Bank in Guinea reported the incident to his superiors in Washington. Orders were given to the ministry of Telecoms to settle ARTECH and to send back the rest of the budget ear-marked by the World Bank for the project. In the meantime, questions remain on the fate of the telecom operators 8 billion Guinean francs.