Two parliamentary parties have excoriated the government’s One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) initiative with GAP’s MP Everall Franklin calling for an immediate review of it.
Following a falling out in the National Assembly over the cost of the instruments being purchased by the government under the OLPF, the opposition members are asking for all documents related to the project to be made public. On Wednesday, Minister within the Finance Ministry Jennifer Webster sought to correct a statement she had made in the House the previous day and said that the netbooks being procured under the OLPF are being purchased at a unit cost of US$295 ($60,770) per instrument and not $295,000 as originally stated. She said also that contrary to some media reports, “the laptops are being procured in accordance with applicable procedures and rules”.
AFC Leader Raphael Trotman, in an invited comment, opined that this was “the mother of all cover ups” and said his party is determined to get to the bottom of it. “This thing is a scam, and Minister Webster’s credibility has now been badly damaged,” he said. Describing the One Laptop initiative as the “torch bearer of the PPP’s [election] campaign, Trotman said Webster would have been anticipating questions on the initiative.
“The AFC demands the details, including the bid documents, the specifications of the type of laptop sought by the government and the person or persons or firm that won the bid,” Trotman said.
“We need to see the contract. Something is fishy,” AFC MP Sheila Holder said when Stabroek News asked for her reaction to Webster’s correction. Holder was one of the opposition members who had intently questioned Webster over the project during Tuesday’s sitting of the house, when the estimates for the 2011 Budget were being examined.
GAP/ROAR MP Everall Franklin, while calling for greater transparency, urged that the entire initiative be reviewed. Speaking on behalf of the Guyana Action Party (GAP), Franklin said that so far there has been little information on the specifics of the project, particularly as it relates to the procurement of the laptops and the models being purchased. Stabroek News was told that the model being purchased is the Lenovo S 10-3 netbook. A search online found the model to be available at a cheapest price of US$279.99.
Franklin said that from what he has gathered, the government has been distributing netbooks (which are thin, lightweight [3 lbs or less], ultra-portable computers with a screen size of 12 inches or less which operate on an ultra low power processor).He said that from what he has been told, these netbooks do not even have the capacity to play DVDs, which he opined was strange if indeed the computers are to be used for teaching and learning. He said too that the systems being given were not even “modern systems”.
Explaining his call to see the entire project reviewed, Franklin said the government needed to clearly outline what it wanted to achieve by the project and then go about strategically planning how it will be implemented. He said that the government may even want to consider whether distributing laptops instead of desktop computers to families is the way to go. According to him, it appeared as if the administration had simply tried to mimic the initiative that the government of Trinidad and Tobago had adopted with its one laptop per child programme. A key difference is the laptops in that project are distributed via schools and stored there.
“I hope we review it with the objective of delivering something that is worthwhile to the population,” he said. Franklin stressed that he is not against the project being implemented but said that transparency is important. “I also want to see the tender document being sent out and made public,” the opposition MP said.
Regarding, Webster’s correction, Franklin said “it was embarrassing”. He said what intensified the embarrassment is that it was the Minister within the Finance Ministry who had made the error. According to him, “a cursory multiplication” of the figures in the first place could have avoided the confusion.
PNCR-1G MP Shadow Finance Minister Volda Lawrence on Wednesday told Stabroek News that the question about cost appeared to have caught the minister by surprise. Lawrence said that while Webster’s apology had been accepted, it was not the minister’s role to cast blame on the media since they had merely reported utterances she had made in response to specific questions.
Lawrence said there are still a number of questions which remain unanswered. Apart from the cost, she said there are outstanding issues related to the specific model of computers being purchased and the tendering process. “We were told that the $1.8 billion subsequently would be going out to tender but yet they had all these computers to start distribution,” Lawrence said. “We know that there are persons already here in Guyana; entities who have been given the go ahead to sell them these computers. These computers have been in the country since last year. John Public is aware of these things,” she added. “It’s time that the Minister and Office of the President come clean on these things,” Lawrence said. She also emphasized that her party applauds the initiative but said that value for money is key. “Everybody applauds giving a laptop. It is not a bad gesture. But we want to ensure that we get our money’s worth and that whatever is the cost of it, that is the cost we are paying,” she said.
Lawrence said her party will continue to seek answers on the project through the avenues provided by the National Assembly.
In November, this newspaper was able to confirm that that some 150 Lenovo instruments have been procured for the pilots through locally authorized Lenovo dealers Starr Computers and Vishnu Panday and Associates Inc. It was disclosed that warranty, service and support for the instruments would be provided by local companies.
About 100 of these were ceremoniously handed over to families by President Bharrat Jagdeo when the initiative was launched a few weeks ago at the International Conference Centre. Some of the groups identified have not received the computers as yet.
The government hopes to provide 90,000 computers for the poorest families in the country over the next three years.
