The Office of the President is inviting bids from eligible and qualified bidders for the Supply of Computer Based Training Software and Online Evaluation for its One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) Project.
According to the notice, which has been placed on government procurement website www.eprocure.gov.gy , the bidding will be conducted through the International Competitive Bidding (ICB) procedures and is open to all bidders, subject to provisions of Section V – Eligible Countries. The deadline for the submission of bids is 10th May, 2011. Bids are to be submitted to the Chairman of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NP&TAB).
On April 12, three local companies bid for the supply of netbooks/laptops for the OLPF. These companies were: CCS Guyana Ltd, Giftland OfficeMax and Digital Technology. No announcement has been made as yet as to which company has won the contract. The government has budgeted $1.8 billion for the procurement of the computers for this year.
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 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.
