The Danish consultant who played a key role in the assessment of the bids for the 1995 mobile phone licence competition has said he will not be attending to give evidence.
The fact that Mr Michael Andersen will not be attending the hearings in Dublin Castle is a major blow to the tribunal's inquiry. The importance of Mr Andersen to the competition has become increasingly obvious as the inquiry proceeds.
Mr Andersen and his colleagues at his consultancy firm, Andersen Management International (AMI), were the only people who took part in the assessment of the bids who had prior experience of complex mobile phone licence competitions.
He and his consultancy were paid 637,000 for their work on the competition. The tribunal has heard that in the course of the competition there was a dispute between the department and AMI over the issue of fees. The consultants said the competition was involving more work than they had originally envisaged, and sought more payment.
Mr Andersen and AMI have since 1995 carried out other commissions here in relation to telecoms competitions and telecoms regulation. In total, AMI has received more than 5 million in fees from the State. Tribunal counsel Mr John Coughlan SC said it was "strange" that someone who had received such payment from the State would not agree to attend a tribunal established by the Oireachtas.
Mr Andersen has met with the tribunal in private and has written a very lengthy narrative statement for the tribunal. This latter was furnished only after it was agreed that he would be paid €25,400 by the Department of Communications.
In the document, Mr Andersen said the Esat Digifone bid was one of the best he ever saw in any licence competition in any jurisdiction.
In June 2002 the tribunal was told that Mr Andersen had sold his interest in AMI to a Norwegian concern, Ementor, and that it, Ementor, did not want to spend any more money assisting the tribunal.
The new owner of AMI, Ementor, is involved in a joint venture business with the giant Norwegian telecommunications company, Telenor. Telenor was Mr Denis O'Brien's partner in the Esat Digifone bid for the Irish licence.
