05 August 2020

Liberia Telecommunication Authority (LTA) boss Ivan Brown has been suspended following accusations of wrongdoing.

The decision was announced on June 5 by president George Weah and Edwina Zarka was immediately appointed to act as managing director in the meantime.
Brown’s suspension comes at a time when the tel- ecoms regulator is engaged in an intense battle with mobile phone operator Orange over the payment of the surcharge imposed on voice calls and data.

In November 2019, LTA introduced a minimum price of US$0.0156 per minute for voice calls
and 0.00218 per megabyte for data services. The regulator has also set a surcharge of US$0.008 on voice calls and US$0.0065 per megabyte for data.
Orange opposed this surcharge before the court, claiming that such a decision does not fall within the regulator’s remit. The French operated cited a law passed by the legislature and published on 29 August 2017, despite the regulator’s authority to issue regulations in the exercise of its power. Orange Liberia said it was the prerogative of the (LRA).

On June 1, 2020, the plenary chamber of the Supreme Court suspended the levying of the tax by the LTA until further notice.