EDITORIAL

Viettel: Vietnamese shareholders not above the law

Impunity with its entire ramifications is the stock in trade of the Vietnamese top managers of the third mobile telephone company in Cameroon - Nexttel. They have not only violated the Cameroonian investment code and shattered the limits to the number of foreign workers but have provocatively ignored the prime ministerial decree number 93/571/PM of July 1972 which lays down the conditions for the employment of aliens in Cameroon.

The foreign telephone operators who own 70 percent of the shares in Viettel Cameroon have had the impudence to break the law despite repeated advice and caution from the chairman of the board of directors, El Hadji Ahmadou Baba Danpullo who owns 30 percent of the shares.

It was thanks to his loyalty and support to the CPDM regime and extensive business investments in Cameroon and abroad that Viettel was given the license since 2012 to operate with exclusive rights to the D3 technology system which makes internet faster and cheaper. But since then, the company has passed through difficulties with multiple postponements of its launching dates until mid last month.

The first violation of the law was the massive importation of workers from Vietnam far above the quota provided by law for positions where there are better qualified Cameroonians to occupy.

Secondly, they have infringed the law creating and managing multinational companies which gives preferential treatment to Cameroonians but in this case the domination of Vietnamese in management positions is alarming. They hold 47 of the top management posts against just nine for Cameroonians.

The third violation borders on the qualification of the visitors which are described as “irregular” and do not permit them to have work and residence permits, but they are working!

There is also a fourth which is disregard for the Chamber of Commerce requirement of double signatures to protect the interests of Cameroonian investors and employees in multinational companies based in the country.

The provocative infringements by the Vietnamese also extend to the way the name of the company was changed overnight from Viettel to NEXTTEL which is the name of another telecommunication company operating in Argentina.

In conflicting advertisements illustrating the stand-off at the launch of operations, French Language daily newspaper, le jour published adverts on Nexttel while rival Mutations carried the one on Viettel Cameroon the same week.

When asked why there was the contradiction, a senior Cameroonian staff said the government gave authorisation for the operations to Viettel Cameroon and had “not been made to change the name before the start of its activities”.
In their spiral of the illegality, the Vietnam side is quoted saying Nexttel is the “name that has been filed at the OAPI (international property rights) for the formalities for obtaining a patent". The new name, said the source, has already been notified to the Telecommunications Regulatory Agency (TRA) whose reaction is not yet known.

There are however unanswered questions as to why the Vietnamese do not want to be associated with the name of their parent company in preference to that of the Argentinean firm in which it has no stake in the Cameroon venture.

 Baba Danpullo who is known to respect the Cameroonian law to the letter as well as those of other countries in Africa and Europe where he has several other investments in different sectors is known to have made efforts to tow the ice and bring the Vietnamese to order.

He convened a meeting of the board of directors at his Ndawara Estates, North West region, in March 2013, during which he reiterated the necessity for the company to respect the prime ministerial decree and the Cameroon investment code. He persuaded his Vietnamese partners to train Cameroonians within the framework of the transfer of technology which is an obligation for foreign companies investing in the country.

Following the amicable deliberations at the meeting, it came out with a resolution that a training and integration programme should be organised in Hanoi, Vietnam for selected staff in all departments before the launching of the activities of the company. The Vietnamese still basking in their indiscretion reneged on the resolution agreed at the board meeting. Apparently they did not want to transfer technology and expertise to their Cameroonian employees so as to keep them on the fringe of management in perpetuity.

As if to add salt to injury, they instead imported over 300 more Vietnamese in addition to the 200 who were already employed in the company. The first group of 200 “expatriates” came in under the ploy to manage the technical aspects in the setting up of the operations.

As The Guardian Post has said before, “a majority of the Vietnamese at Viettel occupy positions which could be effectively and efficiently handled by competent Cameroonians ‘’. There are skillfully nationals with superior knowledge of local realities such as Cameroonian business climate, bilingualism, culture, laws and regulations required for success and competition.

A petition has been filed against the Vietnamese general manager and deputy board chairman. He is accused of not only violating the law but “treats his collaborators as ordinary customers; this could create permanent conflicts within the management team. The director general also is not transparent, disrespects the laws governing the telecommunication sector in Cameroon and equally has disregard for shareholders”.

Despite the standoff between the share holders and the numerous violations by the Vietnamese, there are however indications that the new company is blasting the thrill in the mobile telephone communication sector, thanks to its 3D technology monopoly for now.

In as much as Cameroonians are a peace loving people, hospitable and friendly, no foreign investor should be allowed to trample on the law. The various instruments are well spelt out unequivocally and foreign investors agree to abide by them before bringing in their money.

The Vietnamese are not an exception and should not be made to be so. That is why The Guardian Post calls on the relevant departments of the government, especially the immigration police, to find out the legitimacy of the residence and work permits of the Viettel employees and deport those working illegally.

The quota allocation for foreigners in the company should also be scrupulously enforced not in the breach as the Vietnamese at Nexttel want to tell their national co-investors.