Chinese company Huawei donated the first set of netbooks distributed under the One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) initiative but the next batch of computers will be procured by an open international competitive tender, President Bharrat Jagdeo said yesterday.

“The 142 computers that we distributed at the launch, we got as a gift from Huawei. We did not buy those computers, we got them as a gift from Huawei,” Jagdeo stated during a press briefing at State House.  Huawei is the same company that has been contracted by the government to connect internet networks across Guyana as part of its e-governance thrust. The same firm has partnered with E-networks, a firm owned by the son of a former PPP/C minister and senior party executive, to bring the WiMax network to Guyana. At the recent official launch of the OLPF programme at the International Conference Centre, President Jagdeo did not reveal that the Lenovo brand computers that were ceremonially handed over were a gift from the Chinese company.

Jagdeo’s answers yesterday came amid continuing concerns about the transparency and wisdom of the project and in the backdrop of the flubbing of an answer on …..