Cabinet gives clearance for textbook purchases

The Ministry of Education will be purchasing original textbooks directly from publishers for both secondary and primary schools throughout the country and the purchase contracts have been given Cabinet’s no-objection.

Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon on Wednesday announced that a contract, divided into three lots received Cabinet’s no-objection when the body met last Tuesday.

In September of 2012, the Publishers Association took to the High Court and obtained an injunction against five stores, blocking the sale of photocopies of their respective texts. Their move came after tenders were opened for the supply of pirated copies of texts to the Ministry of Education for its book distribution programme. Government had pre-selected seven companies to bid to supply photocopied texts.

20140808table aug 8Controversy had been sparked by the government’s declaration that it was pursuing contracts for the pirating of textbooks for public school students.

Under public pressure and intervention by the diplomatic community, government eventually announced that a multi-million dollar deal with several publishers to procure original textbooks for distribution in public schools was reached.

The Cabinet Secretary also informed of seven other contracts for which no-objections were granted.

The procuring entities, description of tenders and the award value are shown in the table below.