By Ibrahim Alusine Kamara (Kamalo)
Recent media campaign by Tiwai Memory Masters (TMM) against the Ministry of Communications, Technology and Innovation over the procurement of the Government Wide Area Network (GWAN) and Government Local Area Networks (GLANs) project has left many observers puzzled.
This is especially so when the contract, for which TMM is raising hell, has not yet been awarded to any bidder.
The GWAN/GLANs project is being implemented by the Ministry under the World Bank-funded Digital Transformation Project, and TMM is among the companies participating in the procurement process.
TMM has raised complaints concerning the 88.86% scores awarded to it by the Technical Evaluation Committee, claiming that it got 96% as per its internal rating. The Ministry, meanwhile, has provided a detailed response to the concerns raised with full knowledge and approval of the World Bank.
What makes the current media campaign particularly striking is that all bidders, including Tiwai Memory Masters, have been invited to the Bid Opening Process scheduled for 29 September 2026.
In other words, the procurement process is still ongoing.
There has been no announced winner, and no contract has been awarded to a competing company.
This raises a straightforward question: why is a procurement dispute being presented publicly as though the process has already been concluded?
TMM, like any other bidder, has every right to challenge a procurement process if it believes the rules have not been followed. It can seek clarification, submit formal complaints and pursue the appropriate review mechanisms.
However, those mechanisms exist precisely to allow procurement concerns to be determined on the basis of evidence, rules and due process.
The Ministry has already responded to TMM’s complaints, while the World Bank remains the funding partner for the wider Digital Transformation Project. The procurement process is therefore subject to established procedures rather than being a matter that can be determined through media exchanges.
The involvement of the procurement review process also provides an avenue for TMM’s concerns to be examined formally.
The issue is therefore not whether TMM has the right to complain it clearly does.
The bigger question is whether a pending procurement process should be turned into a public confrontation with the implementing Ministry before the bids have even been opened and evaluated.
The scheduled 29 September bid opening will be an important stage in the process. Until then, no bidder can legitimately be described as having won or lost the contract.
The public deserves transparency, but it also deserves accuracy.
If TMM has evidence of irregularities, the appropriate authorities should examine that evidence and make the necessary determinations. If the Ministry has complied with the applicable procurement requirements, the process should be allowed to establish that.
What is difficult to understand, however, is the apparent attempt to make a major controversy out of a procurement exercise that has not yet reached the contract-award stage.
Many observers believe Tiwai is basically trying to blackmail the process and pressure its way to success. Many have said that this is not the first time the company adopts such negative tactics – when it is worried that it may not win because of substandard or below par bids, it seeks to use these nefarious means to scare off the donors and muddy the waters – If not me, nobody else should get it. This trick is now well known and should be rejected.
The GWAN/GLANs project is intended to strengthen Sierra Leone’s digital infrastructure. Its procurement should therefore be allowed to proceed on the basis of fair competition, transparency, evidence and due process—not media pressure.
For now, the facts remain simple: the contract has not been awarded, TMM remains in the bidding process, all bidders have been invited to the 29 September bid opening, and the complaints can be determined through the appropriate procurement mechanisms.
Meanwhile, Tiwai Memory Masters has refused to respond to a clarification message sent by this writer via sms and email.
Investigation continues…
