Monrovia – Mr. Henry Costa, host of the Henry Costa morning show has dismissed suggestions that he recorded and shared a conversation between himself and Mr. Ivan Brown, the suspended Chairman of the Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA), that led to President George Weah’s suspension of the LTA boss.
‘It’s Going to Kill People’
“Some people have reached out to me about this thing – about a recording or conversation between you and Ivan Brown, that has caused Ivan Brown to lose his job. Nope! No conversation between Ivan Brown and myself cost him his job, no conversation whatsoever. Yes, there is a recording between Ivan Brown and myself, but I’m not responsible for him losing his job.”
Mr. Costa said it was Mr. Brown who in fact called him on the 23rd of May, after he had just completed a podcast on the social media Facebook where he discussed the controversial telecommunications surcharge issue.
On the recording, in possession of FrontPageAfrica, both Mr. Costa and Mr. Brown open the discussion by saying each had missed a call from the other. Costa states that he had missed a call from Mr. Brown while he was on his live video. Mr. Brown repeats the same saying, he had missed a call from Mr. Costa.
He asks the LTA boss: “What are you all doing about his surcharge. Don’t you know our people cannot afford this thing? It’s going to kill the people.”
Mr. Brown responds: “You need to talk to MTN and Orange”.
Brown to Costa: ‘Let Me Confide in You’
Even after Mr. Costa informed Mr. Brown that he had all the documents, letters and invoices, and every letter sent him the LTA boss said: “Let me confide in you on that invoice. That invoice was intended to raise concern from the World Bank so they can come in. But that’s why I say talk to Chrim, he will give you more info on it.
Chrim Robinson is an assistant to Mr. Brown, currently studying in Nairobi, Kenya.
Mr. Costa then asks Mr. Brown, “In confidence, can you tell me whether this thing will be pursued, or you guys will drop it.”
Mr. Brown replies: “Quite frankly, we are fighting to drop it.”
The suspended LTA boss suggested that Mr. Costa speak to Chrim for “more information”.
Mr. Costa said he had no role in the suspension of Mr. Brown. In fact, he says, Mr. Brown caused his own problems when he somersaulted on President Weah when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Telecommunications last week.
‘No Comment’ From Brown
Mr. Costa explained: “This is why he wants to put the blame on me – on Saturday, May 23rd, I did a video in which I laid out everything about how Ivan Brown was pushing for this surcharge, to increase the fees. George Weah is trying to stifle our voice; he’s trying to deny us access to information. It will get so expensive, you will not be able to go on Facebook, you will not be able to access information easily. I did a podcast, on Saturday, the 23rd, I talked about everything, all the letters. Ivan Brown had written invoices to Orange to pay US$2.5 million dollars, additional US$2.5 million under the surcharge regulation. Orange say we cannot pay this money because we did not implement the surcharge, our customer will not be able to afford it. Liberians cannot afford, they are already struggling to pay daily voice call rate, so we cannot implement this.”
Mr. Costa says a similar invoice was sent to Lonestar for US$1 million because we did not implement this.
Contacted Monday, Mr. Brown said he had “no comment”.
Mr. Costa alleges that the government’s decision to push on with the surcharge is due to an arrangement made with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to find ways to pay back a US$50 million loan. “The World Bank is set to give the government US$50 million dollars, do not do this to Liberian people, they cannot afford this.”
Mr. Costa says he asked Mr. Brown why the government was pushing the surcharge on the Liberian people and Mr. Brown told him he was “not really in support of it.”
“Ivan Brown did not lose his job over any recording; he lost his job over standing up to George Weah. I’m not even going to be considerate to Ivan Brown because of the nonsense I’ve been hearing – and what he and his people have been spreading about me – and I’m going to be extremely candid about how he and his friends are accusing me of costing him to lose his job.”
– Henry Costa
Brown Somersaulted, Costa Says
He went on to accuse Mr. Brown of leaving out the portion where he somersaulted against the government’s position by telling the Senate Committee that it was wrong to take financial autonomy away from the LTA. “The pitch was to tell the committee to remove the financial autonomy provision or clause, so that the Central government can be able to take all the money from LTA and Maritime. All the regulatory fees and the license fees all those payments are made directly to the consolidated account. He leaves out the part where he went to the Senate last Wednesday and broke away from George Weah and told the Senators not to amend the LTA Act in order to give Weah the control of the money.”
Mr. Costa claims that the government promised the IMF that it would repay the loan by increasing the price of gasoline and taking away financial authority from both the Maritime and the LTA. “These are the ways they going to pay this money back, the new loan they are going to give us – in addition to adding the 30 cents on a gallon of gasoline, you are also going to relax the LTA and the income from Maritime into the national budget, the national consolidated account, that’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to centralize the money from LTA, the money from Maritime, we’re going to take all this money from them and we’re going to put this money into a consolidated account.”
In his appearance before the Senate last Wednesday, just a day before his resignation, Mr. Brown had, according to Mr. Costa, agreed to go along with making the government’s case to the Senate and asking for an adjustment to be made to the LTA Act. However, once he appeared before the Senate, along with Finance and Economic Planning Minister Samuel Tweah, he somersaulted.
Brown Trumpeted LTA’s Independence
Mr. Brown reportedly told the Senate Committee that when the LTA was created, it was created to be an independent regulator. “That is the way it is done all over the world. Independent regulators have financial autonomy, meaning they generate their own revenues – and they make their own budget, control their own funds.”
Mr. Costa says he felt obligated to put a stop to the rumors that he caused Mr. Brown to lose his job.
“I needed to set the record straight because, Ivan Brown cost his own problem and he’s telling people – because of some recording that I got to listen to later on, that it’s because of that recording that he lost his job. He’s telling people that I supplied George Weah a recording on him – and it is that recording that George Weah used to fire him. Henry Costa gave George Weah a recording between him and Costa and that is why they fire him. Can you believe that? When Ivan Brown know better.”