Council of Ministers Approved 4.5 million USD to appeal a case against Vivacell firm which was suspended in 2018.
Why Vivacell License Was Suspended: The government suspended Vivacell license after they fail to adhere to the regulations said Ladu Wani Kenyi who was the director of National Communications Authority at that time.
Vivacell Telecoms responded by saying that they have have waived all taxes and dragged the government to the International Court Of Arbitration and demanded to paid 3.5 Billion USD in restitution but the court granted them 1 Billion USD.
PAY ATTENTION: The International Court of Arbitration is the world’s leading arbitral institution. Since 1923, we have been helping to resolve difficulties in international commercial and business disputes to support trade and investment.
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WHY 4.5 MILLION DOLLARS: Information Minister Makuei said the approved 4.5 Million USD is for the court fees to hire National and International Law firms to defend the government.
“Vivacell was operating on the license of the New Sudan, which is is a country which SPLM/SPLA was fighting for, it was a license which was issued by the Civil Authority of the New Sudan,” he explained. “When that license was issued, it was bought by Vivacell/ Al Fattouch Group and they were exempted from payment of all the fees and whatever for 10 years from the date of operation. When the 10 years ended, this was the time I called the Fattouch Group and told them to now obtain the license of South Sudan, they refused and insisted that we should allow them to continue to operate on this New Sudan license.”- He explained in depth.
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He further said that: “The New Sudan license to us as independent South Sudan is a foreign license so we did not give them that opportunity,” he said. “They insisted and I suspended their operation to bring them to the table so that we can talk and they refused and went and complained in the International Court of Arbitration.”
He added that the court denied Vivacell group the initial 3 Billion USD they demanded but opt to grant them 1 Billion USD.
“We went there and have been following the case all these years until last year when the court awarded them USD m1 Billion and Vivacell was claiming a sum of USD 3 Billion from us,” he said. “We disputed the USD 3 billion and we even questioned the competence of the arbitrator to look into that case because we are an entity, we are a country with its laws so our law should apply in this particular case.”
WHY APPEAL THE CASE: “The arbitrators did not listen to us and decided to knock out the USD 2 Billion leaving USD 1 Billion and we are now appealing against the decision of the arbitrator in a Swiss court which is the center for arbitration,” Makuei said.
He further said that the arbitrators are incompetent that is why they are appealing for a new ruling on the case.
“We are appealing because the arbitrator himself does not have the competence,” he said. “Number two, the amount which is being claimed by these people (Vivacell) is not in place and number three, we did not dismiss or finally stop Vivacell but we suspended its operation. There is a difference between suspension or dismissal or putting aside or closure.” He said.
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