Quite why information on the government’s One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) project is being released in ‘dribs and drabs’ is anyone’s guess. Recently, the authorities released a bewildering array of pre-conditions that would have to be met under the OLPF offer. One of those pre-conditions is that the lap top recipients are really only part-owners. The government has a share in the ownership. If you lose it you pay. If you misuse it to illegal ends you alone are liable.
Observers are seeing these recent disclosures as the sting in the tail. LEF JAGDEO LAP TOPS ALONE!
All this, of course, comes on the heels of the Minister Jennifer Webster’s US$295,000.00 parliamentary gaffe and the subsequent energetic media probe into the procedures being employed by government for the acquisition of the laptops in which the government was weighed and found decidedly wanting. Whoever is handling the PR for the project (we are told its Kwame Mc Coy) surely ought to be put out to pasture. What was once regarded as a forward-looking initiative has now become shrouded in controversy. Local IT dealers who were reportedly hoping to secure contracts to supply the laptops are believed to have dropped the idea like a hot cake since it is now believed that the tender is likely to be awarded to an overseas player. On the other hand not a few IT experts are far from persuaded that the issuance of Laptops is the best idea. “Laptops are costlier in the long run. They are far more vulnerable to loss or damage because of the nature of their use. There are far fewer people in Guyana who can repair laptops than people who can repair desktops and that alone will make them more expensive to fix,” a local IT engineer says.
With all the fuss, the blunders the accusations of corruption and the attendant hullabaloo the government must now be wondering whether it may not have been less stressful to implement a One Water Tank Per Family instead. President Jagdeo, however, is not likely to change his mind. He is not that kind of President. The more the criticism, the more he digs in. At any rate the OLPF project is believed to be a political handout ahead of the 2011 general elections. There will, however, be more OLPF banana skins ahead for Mr. Jagdeo.
