Commentary

The Manager of Rolaan Enterprise of 55 Mcdonald Street in Freetown must come clean about his host of misconceptions and misinformation about the Sierra Leone Free Education Project Secretariat (FEPS) under the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) after his bid was not successful at the Technical Evaluation Committee to proceed to the next stage.

The Satellite can reveal authoritatively that on 21st August 2025, the Manager of Rollan Enterprise received an official letter from the Sierra Leone Free Education Project Secretariat (FEPS) with reference to "Return of Bid Security," stating that Rolaan was not successful at the Technical Evaluation to proceed to the next stage. Consequently, Rolaan's Security Bid was returned.

"Your bid for Procurement, Design, Layout, Editorial work, Printing and Distribution of Learning Materials for Primary II Literary Book ((Procurement No. SL-MBSSE-483324-GO-RFB) was not successful at the Technical Evaluation to proceed to the next stage," the correspondence states.

The Bid Evaluation Committee also noticed, according to our investigations, that the Rolaan Enterprise submitted a copy of ISO9001, but it can not be verified on the website despite the Technical Evaluation Committee did everything possible to check but to no avail.

"In view of the above, we are returning the bid security submitted by you, and we wish you all the best in all your subsequent endeavours. Please also be informed that the financial bid opening will take place on Wednesday the 3rd of September 2025, at 12:00PM," the correspondence states.

The Satellite also gathered that while Rolaan Enterprise presented a fake ISO certificate that disqualified its manager from proceeding to the next stage, the manager is now bent on using the media to misinform the public about the bid with the intention to deceive the people and damage the reputation of FEPS.

Rolaan is reportedly bent on spreading a host of misconceptions and misinformation about FEPS regarding his failed bid, including the skewed notion that the bidding process is not transparent.

Not only did Rolaan present a fake ISO certificate that disqualified him from the bidding process, and gave a website that can not verify his own company, but the QR code he also submitted can not verify his own company, according to our investigations.

Since the certificate Rolaan submitted can not be verified, The Satellite can challenge Rolaan to prove the Technical Evaluation Committee of the FEPS wrong by showing the process that was conducted to issue that certificate, as well as the amount that was spent.

As a diplomat representing South Africa in Sierra Leone, Rolaan is also challenged to present a Power of Attorney (POA) to appoint someone to undertake the bidding process on his behalf. That alone disqualified him because of a conflict of interest.

Our investigations further revealed that during the first procurement process, it was agreed that the sample of the books to be printed would only be issued to the winning bidder as instructed by the World Bank, MBSSE and partners. Even so, Rolaan was busy spreading misconceptions and misinformation about FEPS, especially its Procurement Specialist.

There was a bidding which Rolaan attended late, about two days towards the closing time, according to our investigations.

At the bid opening when the bidders were asked to say something, Rolaan made false accusation of the Procurement Specialist in that meeting, which the other bidders countered.