DAMEN culpable in NASSIT ferry saga
DAMEN Shipyards Gorinchem in the Netherlands is said to be held culpable for apparently misleading NASSIT into believing that the ferries they had purchased were operational after its professional services were hired for the procurement of the two ferries.
When this issue first came to light after the ferries landed on the shores of Freetown, Sierra Express Media was made to understand that the company-DAMEN Shipyard agreed to carry out all repairs at their own expense in one month period, talking responsibility for its action.
DAMEN who are the brokers that were hired for the purchase of the now controversial ferries, have also admitted that they were also misled by the sellers and that many errors were made on the tow trip from Greece to Freetown, stressing that their responsibility was to make sure NASSIT receives what it deserves- a safe and operational ferry.
Investigations also reveal that on 24th March 2009, DAMEN wrote to NASSIT that “at the time of its acquisition, the ferry’s technical state was deemed to be correct for her age and her condition reflected the asking price.â€
The letter however went on to state that “upon arrival, it became apparent that her condition had seriously deteriorated and that she was temporarily not operational while the passenger areas were not in the state that NASSIT expectedâ€. In that same letter, DAMEN offered to repair the vessel and bring her back into operation within a period of one month from the date of the letter at DAMEN’s own cost.
According to that letter, various specialists were to supervise the repairs comprising but not limited to, main engine repair, auxiliary engine repair, electrical system repair, bridge controls, structural welding, replacement of doors in the superstructure and enhancement of the overall quality aspect of the passenger area.
The Ship Brokers also expressed their feelings that the vessels should operate for the next two or three years without the planned engine-room overhaul for which NASSIT had already bought a caterpillar engine.
The letter was signed by K. Joustra, Regional Director for Africa and copied the Minister of Employment and Social Security and the Chairman, Board of Trustees.
Another interesting development was the reply from the then NASSIT Director-General, Edmund Koroma who pointed out that the state of the vessels which he said was contrary to what NASSIT expected and paid for: he also committed DAMEN to get the vessel operational at their own cost within the one month period they had stated.
In his correspondence to the Brokers, the DG expressed the Board and Management’s utter disappointment at the level of service offered by the company and stated that this was what they wanted to avoid that led them to chose DAMEN as brokers in the first place.
The DG also pointed out that although NASSIT had agreed in principle to the rehabilitation works by DAMEN within a month as suggested by the brokers, they will however use an independent specialist to certify that the vessel was in good operational condition.
The email reply on the 26th March 2009 states that  “it has never been DAMEN’s intention to betray the trust of NASSIT but that the company will do whatever possible to bring the vessel back in the operational state she should have been in, when it was acquired.â€
Our investigations also reveal that on 25th July 2009, €235,000 was paid into the account of DAMEN for the purchase of the vessel ‘Gripskyss’ and another €659,491 was transferred for the overhaul of another vessel- ‘The Costas’.
We also recalled that as far back as November and December 2008, NASSIT and the Ports Authority management had agreed on how to bring to standard the landing jetties at Tagrin and Government Wharf for the ferries to land, and that this was contracted to Ports Authority.
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