The new telecommunications operator in Cameroon, Viettel Cameroon, the mobile operator of Nexttel, has been rocked by managerial crisis, less than one month from start up.

Investigations show that the delay in the launching of the activities of the company which has been given a one year monopoly over the 3G network which it is currently operating had actually been caused by internal conflicts.

The bone of contention lies in the non-respect of terms of agreements by the Vietnamese. The Guardian Post gathered that contrary to norms that guide the creation and functioning of multinational companies, there are only nine Cameroonians among the fifty six top management staff.

According to our findings, the nine Cameroonians in Viettel’s top management positions are just figure heads. The management proper, it has been observed, is in the hands of Vietnamese managers.

The Guardian Post learned that over 300 more Vietnamese were brought in to add to the 200 who were already employed in the company. The first group of 200 had been imported under the pretext that they were coming to manage the technical aspects in the setting up of the company.

A majority of the Vietnamese at Viettel occupy positions which could be effectively and efficiently handled by competent Cameroonians who have the required background, knowledge of the Cameroon culture, laws and the fiscal landscape of the country.

Fears are therefore heightened that Viettel’s expected rapid growth may be hindered by the present occupants of these positions (Vietnamese) who have little or no knowledge of the realities on the ground.

According to investigations carried out by The Guardian Post, the files of the employees from Vietnam who have already been in Cameroon for over one year and a half are 100% irregular. Sources say the teething irregular Vietnamese documents would have long been resolved if the persons charged with updating their files were Cameroonians.

Viettel’s promising future, observers fear, may be marred by its top management’s non respect of the prime ministerial decree number 93/571/PM of July 1972 which lays down the conditions for the employment of foreigners in Cameroon. The conditions provide limits to the employment of foreigners to work as ‘manoeuvres’, labourers, employees and agents.

In what has been clearly established as a flagrant and provocative disrespect of the laws of their host country, Cameroon, the Vietnamese have gone ahead to award key administrative ,human resources management, finance, accounting and legal advisers’ posts to their countrymen. This, despite the availability of qualified Cameroonian experts who can effectively and efficiently run these offices.

The Guardian Post has it on good authority that as a way of respecting the prime ministerial decree of July 1972 regarding the employment of foreigners in Cameroon, the board of directors of the company held a working session in Ndawara in March 2013, during which the Cameroonian born Viettel board chairman, El Hadji Ahmadou Baba Danpullo reiterated the need for the company to respect the prime ministerial decree.

Being a peace-lover and one who respects state institutions and the rule of law, Baba Danpullo, The Guardian Post gathered, succeeded during the board meeting to convince his Vietnamese partners that Cameroonians should be trained within the framework of the transfer of technology which is an obligation for the company.

It was thus resolved at the close of the board meeting that a training and integration program be organised in Hanoi for the best employees in all domains before the launching of the activities of the company. The program, however did not hold as was agreed at the board meeting; apparently because the Vietnamese do not have plans to transfer technology to their Cameroonian employees.

A strongly-worded complaint against the Vietnamese director general of Viettel, a copy of which The Guardian Post stumbled on accuses him of treating his Cameroonian collaborators with disdain. ‘He 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’, a portion of the petition reads.

The Guardian Post gathered that as if to add pepper to an already deepening wound, the principle of double signature which was instituted by the Chamber of Commerce to protect the interest of Cameroonian employees in multinational companies based in the country is not respected by the Vietnamese.

Viettel Cameroonian shareholders, The Guardian Post has been hinted, are completely cut off from the management of the company despite the fact that it was thanks to their clean moral record and unmatched loyalty to the Biya regime that the company got its authorisation.

Reports indicate that the rising scuffle between the Cameroonian and Vietnamese employees of the mobile telephone provider had showed its ugly face about four months to its official launch.

Cameroonian born El Hadji Baba Ahamadou Danpullo, it should be said, is the board chairman of Viettel Cameroon; keeping 30% of the company’s capital while the managing director of Viettel Global JSC, Nguyen Duy Tho, a Vietnamese, is deputy board chairman.

The company obtained its licence to operate in Cameroon since December 2012 and had announced that its activities were to be launched in January 2014. The launching date was postponed following several differences. The differences which were seemingly buried have however resurfaced barely a month after the launching of its product, Nexttel.

Management crisis notwithstanding, Nexttel subscribers have testified that the telephone company’s services are fast, cheaper and reliable. Nexttel, subscribers say, has a high speed internet connection which is the fastest in the country so far.

By press time, all attempts to get Viettel board chairman, Baba Danpullo react to news of the company’s management misunderstanding were futile. Vietnamese Viettel shareholders were also not available for their own side of the story. Affaire à suivre...