Cameroon starts audit of construction work for WACS submarine cable laying

The Cameroonian Minister of Postal Services and Telecommunications, Jean Pierre Biyiti bi Essam (photo), has just made a call for tenders to recruit a firm specialised in “the financial auditing of work conducted by MTN Cameroon on the construction work carried out for the laying of West African Cable System (WACS) submarine cables in Limbe” in the South-East of the country.

This audit will aim “to verify that work conducted has been done in keeping with the amounts declared by MTN Cameroon, to ensure that the materials being used cost the prices indicated and check to see that all bills presented by MTN Cameroon are for the laying work.” Applications are to be submitted to the Special Commission on Markets within the Ministry of Postal Services no later than April 10, 2014.

Built in 2012 by the MTN group, the land point for the Limbe WACS enabled connecting Cameroon to the 14,500 km fibre-optic submarine cable which stretches from Europe to Africa across the Atlantic Ocean. On November 27, 2013, MTN Cameroon handed over the structure to the Cameroonian government, transferring to the latter all ownership rights for the infrastructure.

For this, the State must reimburse all fees used in its construction by Cameroon’s cellular phone market leader. The audit will therefore seek to ensure that the bill presented to the Cameroonian government is indeed accurate.