Four years after the government’s US$30 million One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) initiative was launched, questions on the programme’s progress are yet to be answered.
Since January 6, Stabroek News had been in contact with an official of the OLPF in an attempt to gather some information on the programme.
A list of 13 questions had been posed to the official; however, this newspaper was told that the questions could only be answered by Project Manager Margo Boyce.
The questions focused on a number of areas, including setbacks experienced, distribution plans, cost of the computers and the current number of computers on hand. Further, Boyce was questioned on the plan to provide internet access to recipients in the light of the stalling of the fibre optic cable project.
To date, Stabroek News has contacted the OLPF Secretariat more than two dozen times and is yet to receive answers to any of the questions asked.
The OLPF programme was launched in early 2011 and since then it has experienced a number of issues, including defective computers, theft and damage.
By late November 2012, Boyce had revealed that 22,000 units had been distributed and further said that by the end of that year 27,000 units would be in the hands of beneficiaries countrywide.
However, months before in August, the police force launched an investigation into the theft of more than 150 laptops from the warehouse storing the units for the OLPF project.
The computers were reportedly stolen over a three-month period from the warehouse used for the OLPF at 267 Forshaw Street, Queenstown.
The theft saw eight persons being sent on administrative leave and five of them subsequently had their contracts discontinued, while three returned to work.
The police force is yet to complete investigations into the theft of the computers.
Further, the timing of the distribution of the first devices ahead of the 2011 general elections attracted criticism that it was an electioneering project. Questions were also raised about the soundness of the judgment behind it and whether it made sense.
Critics of the project have also argued that handing out computers to families will not necessarily achieve the objective of making them computer literate. Furthermore, there were issues of training, maintenance, use of the computers and addressing matters like theft.
Controversy was also stirred when it was disclosed that the first set of computers were purchased via a financial donation from a Chinese company which had secured a large contract here.
Under the project, the government planned to distribute 90,000 computers to poor families over a three-year period.
