What was billed as a landmark step toward transparency in Liberia’s gambling sector has instead become a case study in procurement malpractice, conflict of interest, and regulatory capture. At the heart of the scandal is Agra Technologies LLC, a company that appears to have been conjured into existence after winning a multimillion-dollar contract.
A Phantom Bidder
The Central Monitoring System (CMS) tender demanded strict compliance: tax clearance, business registration, past performance records, and incorporation documents. Yet Agra Technologies LLC was not even legally formed until January 31, 2025—months after the bid closed in September 2024. Days later, on February 5, 2025, the CMS agreement was signed. In other words, Liberia awarded a contract to a company that did not exist at the time of bidding. This is a fundamental breach of procurement law. It raises the unavoidable question raising questions as to whether the tender process rigged to favor a company that had yet to be born.
The Web of Conflicts
The deeper one digs, the murkier it gets. Agra Technologies is represented locally by William F. Saamoi Jr., who also heads Telecom International Alliance (TIA)—the firm whose GSM monitoring contract was suspended for alleged irregularities. But the connections don’t stop there: Avishai Marziano, linked to TIA, is also tied to Fido Technologies, operator of Starbet. Fido’s ownership trail leads to IGLMS (Hong Kong), a shadowy entity supplying monitoring systems to African governments. Mya Padmore, a co-founder of Fido and IGLMS is reported to be personally linked to Marziano. This tangled web means the same circle of individuals is simultaneously regulating, monitoring, and operating within Liberia’s gambling industry.
Concentration of Power
By placing gambling monitoring in the hands of individuals already controlling telecom monitoring, Liberia has effectively handed the keys of two critical oversight sectors to one small clique. With TIA’s GSM contract already suspended, the CMS deal looks like déjà vu: a repeat of the same consolidation of regulatory power.
A Contract Without Legal Standing
Despite operators being pressured to hand over sensitive revenue and transaction data, the CMS agreement is not fully executed. Key signatories—including the Ministers of Justice and Finance—have not approved it. That means the contract is not legally binding. Any attempt to enforce it is not just irregular—it is unlawful. Observers are wondering why are operators being coerced into compliance with a phantom contract and who benefits from this premature enforcement?
Lessons Ignored
Liberia has already paid the price for weak oversight in the GSM monitoring fiasco. Yet instead of learning from that debacle, the government appears poised to repeat it—this time in the gambling sector, where billions in revenue are at stake.
Demands for Accountability
This is not a matter of bureaucratic housekeeping. It is a matter of public trust. The CMS contract must be reviewed immediately for compliance with procurement law; investigated thoroughly for conflicts of interest and regulatory capture, suspended and retendered under transparent, lawful procedures. Anything less would confirm what critics already suspect that Liberia’s regulatory institutions are being hijacked by private interests masquerading as oversight bodies.
The CMS contract with Agra Technologies is not just irregular—it is indefensible. A company that did not exist at the time of bidding, represented by individuals with overlapping ties to suspended contracts and gambling operators, has been handed control of Liberia’s gambling oversight. Observers believe that this is not reform. It is a scandal, stressing that unless the government acts decisively, it risks cementing a system where the regulators and the regulated are one and the same.
By Joseph Sirleaf
