The National Communication Authority (NCA) has said it made “transpositional errors” while transferring from excel to word, the scores for the five firms that put in bids for the Interconnect Clearinghouse deal (ICH), which was eventually awarded to Afriwave, but added that the errors were corrected and did not affect the final scores that determined the winner among the bidders.
The ICH is meant to monitor call traffic for correct revenue declaration as far as the telecos are concerned. It was expected to be established by May 2015 and be fully operational by December 2015. It will provide a common platform for monitoring volumes of all telecom traffic as per Act 864, reduce cost of interconnect for Service Providers and Value Added Service Providers, enable the interconnectivity with other switches, host Over-The-Top (OTT) services, provide subscriber and equipment identity services as well as transit all national and international calls.
Policy think tank IMANI Ghana recently alleged that the contract was given to Afriwave “fraudulently,” a charge the NCA denied in a statement on Wednesday and repeated at a press conference on Thursday February 11.
In its statement prior to the press conference, the NCA said upon an open invitation for applications for a licence to operate Clearinghouse services in Ghana, on 2 December, 2014, the NCA received five applications for a Clearinghouse licence from Afriwave Telecom Ghana Limited, Channel IT, Global Voice Group, Prodigy Ghana Limited and Subah Infosolutions Ghana Limited.
“Each of the five applicants was given the opportunity to make submissions on their bids on 12 January, 2015 and in addition provide answers to further queries.
“After a comprehensive and transparent evaluation of the bids of the five applicants on the 23 January, 2015, the NCA Board of Directors considered the evaluation report and the recommendations contained therein and endorsed the said recommendations. The Board duly adjudged Afriwave Ghana Limited as the winner of the Clearinghouse licence,” the statement added.
Afriwave Ghana Limited, is a wholly-owned Ghanaian Company with Laurisia Associates as its integration partner; and Huawei and Muecci as its technology partners. It will be the Clearinghouse Services Provider in Ghana for the next ten years.
Afriwave, according to the NCA, “provided the most satisfactory responses against four other competitive applicants.”
