Three local companies have submitted bids to supply netbooks/laptops for the government’s much vaunted One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) programme.
Bids were opened this morning in the boardroom of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB). The bidders are: CCS Guyana Ltd – $1,579,846,154
Giftland Office Max- $1,245,875,000
and Digital Technology- $1,661,661,000
No engineer’s estimate was provided but the government has budgeted $1.8 billion for the procurement of the computers.
The bids will have to be evaluated and an announcement made shortly. Apart from supplying the computers, the company that wins the bid will have to facilitate technical support, after sales service and warranty enforcement when needed, the bid notice said.
Under the OLPF, the government hopes to distribute 90,000 computers to poor families in two years. Phase one, which is being executed this year, is supposed to see 50,000 computers being given to priority groups, which include single-parent, differently-abled and least fortunate family. Families living together as a single household, who earn a combined income of $50,000 or less, are eligible.
The project has been surrounded by controversy ever since Minister within the Ministry of Finance Jennifer Webster told the National Assembly that one instrument was being procured at a price of $295,000. She later admitted to making a mistake and said that the price was US$295.
The programme was initially launched in January, when 142 computers were ceremonially handed over to students from four institutions. It was later disclosed that these computers were purchased with a US$50,000 gift from Huawei after it had won a US$14M contract to lay fibre optic cables here.
