Over 5,000 laptops costing more than $300 million from the One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) project were either stolen or defective, according to an investigation into the initiative which found that the OLPF fell short of its objective, was “grossly overstaffed” and the $4.3 billion spent on it could have been reduced.
In a report submitted to Minister of Finance Winston Jordan, the auditing firm Ram & McRae highlighted a number of issues with the Bharrat Jagdeo-initiated project and recommended that the police be called in to probe the laptop thefts. It said there were issues primarily in the areas of planning, management and supervision of the departments. There was also no proper control over inventory which resulted in the loss of the laptops.
The report said too that the entire project was “grossly overstaffed” and still a number of departments failed to carry out daily duties in accordance with the standard operating procedures. Overall, there was a general lack of proper internal controls and maintenance of
