ATN prepared to go to arbitration on monopoly
Denies ‘bad faith’ charges by govt
Stabroek News
June 24, 2002
Atlantic Tele Network (ATN), parent firm of the local phone company, on Sunday denied government accusations that it had acted in "bad faith" by attempting to block an IDB loan and it also said that it was prepared to go to arbitration on all issues related to its monopoly contract.
Breaking its silence on an issue which has seen President Bharrat Jagdeo accusing it of attempting to blackmail Guyana, ATN said in whole-page advertisements in the Sunday papers "we now publicly state that we agree with the President. It makes no sense to arbitrate a single issue and this may perhaps settle all issues once and for all". On Tuesday, when he accused the company of bad faith and attempted blackmail, the President had said that arbitration had been floated as a possible means of resolving the dispute with ATN and if he agreed to this course of action he would seek to place all the issues on the table including the 6% advisory fees that the parent company creams off from the revenues of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T).
The row between the government and ATN flared up after the latter lobbied the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) not to approve a US$18M loan for an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) project for Guyana on the grounds that a component of the project would infringe upon GT&T’s monopoly rights. ATN is claiming that its monopoly gives it exclusive rights over voice and data transmission whether by landlines or over the internet. The government is contending that the monopoly rights do not extend to the internet which had not been commercialised at the time that ATN had concluded its licence with the Guyana Government.
The government had said it was bad faith for ATN to lobby against the loan even while it was engaged in talks with ATN/GT&T over the breaking the phone monopoly. Prime Minister Sam Hinds, who has responsibility for the telecoms sector, had expressed astonishment at the ATN stance.
In its response to the government, ATN said that it remains committed to negotiate the introduction of competition in the telecoms sector as well as IDB funding for "many parts" of the ICT project.
It argued that the government had been fully aware of ATN/GT&T’s consistent position that reform includes "consensual termination" of GT&T’s exclusive licence rights to national and international voice and data transmission.
Further, the US Virgin Islands-based company said that the government and the IDB had been fully aware that such consensual termination must precede and not follow the ICT project. GT&T cited letters to IDB official Juan Belt dated July 10, 2001, August 1, 2001 and September 5, 2001 informing the IDB of the need to address the terms of GT&T’s licence in regards to the terms of the project.
It added that the Guyana Government and the IDB have been aware of GT&T’s view that implementation of the ICT project would violate GT&T’s present exclusive rights.
The statement concurred with the government assessment that the de-monopolisation talks held in Trinidad on April 23, 2002 had been positive.
"All major issues of reform and liberalisation were amicably discussed. In ATN/GT&T’s view, a way forward was at last charted that would provide a secure future for the reform of the sector and for GT&T and other new carriers as partners in Guyana’s development".
ATN/GT&T lamented that even though a draft memorandum of understanding had been prepared and presented to the government to clear the way for final negotiations on breaking the monopoly, the government is still to provide a response some two months on.
ATN/GT&T says it has become aware that the agreed draft MOU came under bitter attacks "by the highest levels of the government". Further, ATN/GT&T charged that the MOU has not even been considered by Cabinet as yet. "It is worth noting that issues of rates of return, taxes, the development programme and advisory fees were an integral part of the", MOU negotiations the company said.
The company said it remains committed to an early and amicable solution to the issues of telecoms rates, competition and the ICT project and added that it is fully entitled to defend its investment by "means of representation and/or suit in any jurisdiction in which that defence is appropriate".
ATN Chairman Cornelius Prior is scheduled to hold a press conference today in Georgetown to respond to government accusations which have been levelled at the company.