At his most recent press conference, President Jagdeo sought to disarm critics of his One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) initiative by resorting to the most disingenuous of arguments to wit that they wanted to deprive poor children of the opportunity to learn.
It was an argument that was beyond the pale and completely unfounded. What has been quite properly questioned is the conceptualizing of the project and whether there exists a final document delineating all of the parameters and the rationale for expending such a huge sum of money.
As project management goes this OLPF initiative would be given a failing grade if graded at all. One would have expected that for such a visionary project, President Jagdeo would have assembled a small team of knowledgeable persons who would have examined every facet of this massive undertaking and devised a final project document which would have been presented to the public at least at the point the President launched the project if not earlier. Nothing of the sort exists. If the President had been hoping to tap donor money the project would not have flown at all. However, the President appears to believe that the hard-earned tax dollars of the citizens of this country can be treated cavalierly and without the due diligence that is necessary for a project of this scale.
President Jagdeo must not believe that the people of this country are unable to discern in this project a hodge-podge of cobbled together parts which even the Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Ms Jennifer Webster, was unable to get right in Parliament.
The truth is there is very little that is final and properly determined about this project. How then can it be given unquestioned acceptance?
Even the type of computer is at issue. The President has boldly proclaimed the project as the One Laptop Per Family initiative when it has since been grudgingly conceded that what families will take possession of is a netbook, something far less than a laptop. Shouldn’t the President at least rebrand this enterprise the One Netbook Per Family initiative?
But that is not the only unsettled aspect of this enterprise. One of the most important is the price per laptop – estimated at around US$300 – which Ms Webster had spectacularly muffed in Parliament. Of course, the price is dependent on competitive procuring but there have been conflicting projected figures including a US$400 replacement cost listed in a draft proposed Memorandum of Understanding between the government and the recipients which made its way into the public domain.
Then there is the crucial matter of procurement. The project was launched in January but no procurement notice has since been published. One has been promised shortly. When he inaugurated the project on January 21st this year, President Jagdeo failed to tell his audience at the convention centre and the nation that the netbooks being handed out were donations from the Chinese company Huawei. Perhaps he was uneasy that donated netbooks were being handed over when he had pitched this initiative as the government financing computer literacy for the indigent of the country. Or perhaps he was discomfited by the legitimate questions that would be asked about the propriety of Huawei donating netbooks after it was apparently single-sourced by the Guyana Government to connect internet networks across the country as part of the e-governance thrust. Either way it was a significant omission on the part of the President and it was only after Stabroek News questioned the absence of competitive tendering for the project that the President disclosed that the 142 netbooks distributed at the launch had been donated.
Even the MOU that covers the obligations of the government and the recipients is still not ready. The MOU interestingly speaks of community service in return for the netbook. When pressed on the MOU, the information liaison to the President Mr McCoy alluded to a fifth draft and a continuing process. Presumably those who were ceremonially given netbooks at the launch would have to be called back in to sign the MOUs and perhaps will have no option of rejecting it. The public awaits with great interest the procurement notice and the process that follows.
One would think that a project that boldly targets 90,000 poor families would have already defined the factors for eligibility. Not so. The President has spoken blithely of crafting some type of means test to decide which families benefit.
Then there are the original outstanding queries about the prospect of widespread theft and loss of netbooks and how this will be countered. The army of technicians that will be required across the country to service the netbooks and resolve user problems has also not been adequately addressed. Who is going to foot the internet bill until the government gets going with its fibre optic cable project? Further, is the netbook the ideal instrument for the teaching and education objectives of the project?
Given the long-term nature of this project there should be a mechanism to evaluate the success/failure of the distribution of netbooks and to feed back into its management. No such mechanism has yet been announced and it is unclear who or which ministry or department will take full responsibility for day to day management of the initiative.
The manner in which the project has been handled thus far and the venom aimed at critics are trademarks of President Jagdeo’s personal touch. The country should be worried. President Jagdeo in one of his earliest `initiatives’ presided over the squandering of millions in the ill-starred President’s Youth Choice Initiative which featured myriad buildings being constructed across the country – including some for computer centres – and going to waste because the project, while brimming with noble objectives, was not properly conceived and implemented. This project is of a grander scale with a commensurate number of pitfalls that have no easy answers like the argument about the wisdom of consigning netbooks to homes instead of having them allocated to students in well-protected labs in schools. There has been no adequate discussion of this matter in the various interventions made by the President.
The netbooks initiative could well turn out to be a commendable legacy project. However, in its present state it falls far short of a project that is well thought out and transparent. Before he proceeds further President Jagdeo should think clearly about it and return to the drawing board. After all, he is not running for re-election.
