October 4, 2021
BY MOHAMED M. SESAY
The Commercial Manager for Gulf Beverages Company and Head of Operations Claudius Stack-Davies, has on Friday 1st of October 2021, held a press conference at Smart Farm Wilkinson Road in Freetown, in reaction to an article written and published by Calabash Newspaper which states that ‘’Gulf Water Company Limited has not been fulfilling its corporate social responsibility.
The Commercial Manager told the press that the company is well established and they has won a lot of awards because of their credibility in their operation.
He intimated the press that the publication of the report was rather unfortunate because the said reporter never contacted the company to get their own version of the story.
Mr. Davies stated that in terms of the company corporate social responsibility, they have been very much helpful to the community in diverse ways which include but not limited to construction of roads within the community, more importantly they have employed up to 90% of the community people. He added that during the outbreak of Ebola, the company donated hand sanitizers, buckets to help prevent the people from contacting the virus.
He said similar donations have been made for the current COVID-19 outbreak to complement the effort of government in the fight against the pandemic. He said t every year the company normally donates five million Leones (Le5, 000,000) for the community. He disclosed that the company has also consented to support Concord Times Summit by supplying pro bono water throughout the summit.
“We are trying to satisfy the people of Sierra Leone with quality and pure drinking water because we have been one of the leading water companies in the country for the past seven years. We want to maintain our integrity and we want to see that the people of Sierra Leone are safe that is why we are doing all our best to make sure that the people of Sierra Leone have pure drinking water. I want to assure the general public that we will continue to work for them because water is life,” he said.
He continued that the company is very disappointed over such damning article authored by the Managing Editor of the Calabash Newspapers. He reiterated that the company is doing its best over the past years and that they want to maintain quality for the people of Sierra Leone as he knew that water is not something to play with.
In support of the statement made by the Commercial Manager, the Head of Operations for Gulf water Company Ivan Williams also said that he was astonished to see that kind of story from Calabash newspaper. He alluded to the content of the publication saying that most of the workers of the company are not permanent is misleading because they have record from NASSIT to show that all their employees are permanent. He added that such story intends to destroy the hard-earned reputation of the company.
Speaking to A-Z news, the Chief of the Smart Farm Community James Sima Dumbuya, also confirmed that indeed the company has been so helpful to his people. He added that, Gulf Water Company is the first company that has supported his community by constructing roads and employing the community people.
He said since the company started operating in the community, he has never heard any bad thing about them and they are the best company in the community.
In his response to A-Z News, the Managing Editor of the Calabash Newspaper Amin Kef-Ranger said most of the statements made by the Commercial Manager of the Gulf Company is baseless and unfounded. He indicated that he stands by his article insisting that the company has been paying lip service to its corporate social responsibilities in the Smart Farm Community. Ranger categorically alluded to the terrible Road Network and other lacking felt needs which he claimed the company has been paying deaf ears to. He concluded by justifying the good intent of his article in obliging the company to take their corporate social responsibility very seriously for the betterment of the Smart Farm Community.