My attention has been drawn to a new form of fraudulent (419) deals going on among three of the well known major telecommunication companies in Ghana over the construction of telecommunication mast.

What normally happens is that most of these 419 contractors get these contracts through a main contractor working for MTN, Vodafone and Zain and then sublet the contract to our local contractors. Information reaching my office indicates that though these contracts are normally awarded to these 419 companies at high very prices, they in turn award the contract to our local contractors at about a third of the whole contract sum, thus making it very difficult for them to complete the work. On occasion where they managed to complete the project they are never paid, thus putting them in very difficult financial situation.

I have had complains from a lot of companies who have undertaken contracts for MTN, Vodafone and Zain through these 419 companies and have not yet been paid. They have made numerous complaints to MTN, Vodafone and Zain but to no avail, but rather these three companies continue to deal with these 419 contractors who uses Ghanaians as front men (to avoid paying certain fees to Government) to dupe fellow Ghanaians.

In my opinion it is irresponsible on the part of these big telecom giant to turn deaf ears over all these complaints. In addition to the above these major companies in the bid to cut cost subjects fellow Ghanaians to high risk of safety on their sites. In most developed countries one is not allowed to carry anything over 20kg, but what do we see on their projects? Fellow Ghanaians carrying very heavy metals for the construction of the telecom tower, these are materials which must only be lifted through mechanical means. These big companies knew they can never get away with things like this in their own country but they keep abusing our people everyday. The government should act now to stop these things. We cannot wait for another telecom tower to kill another Ghanaian before acting.

In my next article I will be listing all the 419 companies in the telecommunication construction business in Ghana and shame them. I entreat MTN, Vodafone and Zain to remove all of them from their approve list. Secondly they should also set up a help desk to help resolve issues like this when they arise. They should make sure that the right lifting equipments are used on all their sites at any point in time.

To the Government, I must say is failing our people, there is no protection given to our small businesses, foreigners always come and use our people, spit on them, beat them and cheat them whiles the Government looks on. This must stop.

I am giving these 419 companies two weeks to settle any subcontractor they have used on their projects and have not yet paid them. Failure to do so will definitely result in their names being strike off the approved list of these big telecom giants.