HALOTEL SHEDS LIGHT ON ECONOMIC SABOTAGE CASE

Halotel Managing Director, Mr. Le Van Dai, speaks to reporters in Dar es Salaam yesterday about Halotel's recent implication in a recent economic sabotage case. Looking on is Ms. Fatma Seif, an Advocate in charge of Regulatory Affairs.

Halotel Tanzania has said its implication in a recent economic sabotage case was a result of inadvertently working with a fictitious company that caused a 459m/- loss to the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA).

Halotel Managing Director, Mr Le Van Dai said in Dar es Salaam yesterday that they had sold 1,000 Subscriber Identification Module (Sim) cards to UNEX company Ltd and failed to verify information provided by the latter for registration purpose.

The Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam on Tuesday sentenced Viettel Tanzania Limited, its former Managing Director, Do Manh Hong (44) and seven other foreigners to pay a total of 689m/- for occasioning loss to the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA).

This sum includes 459m/- of actual losses occasioned for fraudulent use of communication network and the rest relates to fines imposed after Principal Resident Magistrate Wilbard Mashauri convicted the accused persons on their own plea of guilty to several counts for which they were charged.

He said Halotel and its former Managing Director were not charged on economic sabotage counts as reported by a section of the media. He said the court ruling did not find the telecommunication company and its former Managing Director guilty of economic sabotage.

Mr Dai said Halotel and its former Managing Director were charged on the use of unverified information on simcard registration contrary to the Section 93(3), 152(1) and 153 of the Electronic and Postal Communications Act No.3 of 2010 and were jointly with seven other foreigners charged with occasioning loss to TCRA.

He said the second count in which Halotel and its former Managing Director were charged jointly with the seven foreigners resulted from the first charge of using unverified information on sim-card registration.

He said Halotel was not indicted in other charges which were fraudulent use of network facilities, operating network facilities without a licence, importation of electronic communications equipment without a licence, installation of electronic communication equipment without a licence and use of unapproved electronic equipment connected to electronic communication network service.

The Halotel boss said they had no employment relationship whatsoever with the fraudulent company or the seven foreigners, rather they were clients of the company as any other client and they had unlawfully submitted false information to aid the registration of the SIM cards.

“We are a duly registered company that operates with valid permits provided by the authorities of this country and we have been transparent in following procedures and rules of the country.

The electronic communications equipment’s installed for the purpose of transmitting communication signals without approval of TCRA is not the company’s plants and we had no knowledge as to whether UNEX used such equipment to conduct such operations,” he said.

Daily News