Foodland Supermarket, a Freetown registered business with branches across the country, claimed it supplied over Le6 billion worth of foodstuff and water for CIS in 2014 which the French company failed to pay for.
According to documents seen by APA on Friday, despite a High Court ruling ordering the company to settle its debt, CIS has failed to do so.
Mohamed Soufane, Managing Director of Foodland, said as a result of the court ruling which imposed an 18 percent interest on CIS’s debt, the money has accrued to Le 6.9bllion as of January 31, 2019.
CIS, which operates in over 20 countries worldwide, is listed on the Euronext Stock Exchange, with an annual turnover of over 240 million euros, according to financial statements published on its website.
With expertise in catering, accommodation, facility management, and support services, the company’s client base spans the oil and gas and mining sectors, as well as engineering, defense and international organizations.
With headquarters in Marseille, France, CIS is present in about a dozen African countries, including Guinea Conakry, Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, and DRC.
In Sierra Leone CIS operated between 2006 and 2015, when it declared bankruptcy.
Among its beneficiary clients in the West African country during this period was the defunct UK mining giant, African Minerals Limited, which also went bankrupt in 2015.
The contract between CIS and Foodland was signed in July 2014 for a one year period.
But according to Soufane, it lasted for only six months.
He said this was after they’d faced difficulty getting CIS to pay after Le6.2billion worth of goods were supplied.
“We kept having promises from CIS that payment was on the way and it never came,” the businessman told journalists in Freetown.
According to Soufane, who is a Sierra Leonean of Lebanese origin, 50 percent of the Le6.2billion belonged to the bank.
He said pressure from the lender has led him to close down some of his branches.
At least three other businesses are known to be owed by CIS in Sierra Leone.
Two of them, Fish Meet Land and Saint Mary’s, both of which are also supermarkets, have long closed down.
A group of market women are also among the French company’s victims, according to reports.
Foodland is said to be one of only two local companies owed by CIS that signed legal contracts with the French company.
And this is why Foodland went to court over the issue, said Soufane.
But before that, Soufane reported the matter to the Sierra Leone Police who detained three top officials of CIS, all of whom were French citizens.
He said the French Honorary Consul, who is a Sierra Leonean, intervened and bailed the officials.
Soufane said the bail was approved on the condition that they would discuss new terms of payment.
But to his surprise, the officials fled the country as soon as they were released.
CIS later sent in a new team to manage its business in Freetown.
Soufane again sought and got a court warrant for the arrest of members of the new management.
A delegation from the French embassy in Guinea, including a French lawyer from France, traveled to Freetown to negotiate the release of the men.
The French Honorary Council in Freetown, Mrs Rugi Kamara, again served as surety.
The court ordered the company to pay $300, 000 as condition for bail.
Eventually, in 2015, the High Court judge ruled against CIS, ordering it to pay its outstanding debt, with an interest of 18 percent annually.
Foodland has since reported the matter to Interpol but Mr Soufane said the French arm of the international policing outfit is not cooperating.
Soufane said one of the French officials who fled is thought to be living in Conakry, where the Guinean Interpol office has refused to cooperate in efforts to send him back to Freetown.
The Sierra Leonean businessman believes some French embassy officials were also in on the alleged conspiracy.
According to him, the involvement of the French Honorary Consul in Freetown led to the disappearance of the officials and because of that, he said, he hasn’t been able to get back his money.
He added that the embassy later told him it couldn’t intervene in business matters, especially not criminal business matters.
The French counselor in Freetown, Rugi Kamara, refused to comment on the issue when contacted by APA.
But she told a colleague journalist that she was only representing the interest of the French people and knew nothing about their business transaction.
CIS did not respond to an email from APA seeking a response.
Meanwhile, Foodland is struggling to cope with the effect of the accruing debt to its bank.
Mr Soufane said he is currently auctioning his goods to be able repay the bank, amidst worryingly high interest rates.
The businessman said he has closed three of his branches across the country, in Makeni and Lungi in the north, and one in Freetown.
The main outlet has been reduced by 50 percent because of lack of turnover and lack of capital, he said.
The company has also downsized its employee strength from 140 to 50.
Soufane said he would love to close the business entirely but he risks losing all his collaterals to the bank.
“These people have put us in a lot of mess here,” he lamented in a press conference.
Foodland is the official representative of Belle France in Sierra Leone for the last 15 years.
Soufane said 95 percent of his products are imported from Europe.
“The French government should know what their compatriots are doing and how they are giving the French country a bad name,” he said.
“Ninety percent of my businesses I do in Europe. All our importations are French and European products. So I am asking the French government to give us the opportunity to continue importing and doing business with them, and put a stop to this criminality that CIS is doing not only to me but to a lot of people,” he added.