Eleven companies yesterday bid to supply netbooks/laptops for the government’s much vaunted One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) programme.
The bids for the retender were opened in the boardroom of the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NP&TAB). Of the three companies who had bid for the project when it was first advertised, only Giftland OfficeMax submitted a bid this time.
The bidders are:
(1) Deonarine Singh Manufacturing Company Ltd & PS International Ltd.-$1,633,554,000 (US$8,167,770)
(2) Infostock of Spain (Global Services Inc. Local representatives)- $1,749,600,000 (US$8,748,000)
(3)Giftland Officemax – $1,466,775,000 (US$7,333,875)
(4)McEnearney Business Machines (MBM), a division of Ansa McAL Trading Ltd.- $1,569,230,800 (US$7,846,154)
(5)Abbound Trading Corporation (Florida, USA) – $1,814,400,000(US$9,072,000)
(6)Enerprises Auto Sales (Guyana) -$2,205,630,000 (US$1,028,150)
(7) Johs Gram Hanssen (Denmark) – $1,495,800,000 (US$7,479,000)
(8) Fatz Express Packaging Services Ltd (of Trinidad and Tobago) – $4,325,800,000 (US$21,629,000)
(9)NJ Computers (T&T)- $1,371,600,000 (US$6,858,000)
(10) GOHIGH Company (China)- $1,428,300,000 (US$7,141,500)
(11) Haier Electrical Appliances Ltd (China)- US$8,316,000 (US$ 1,663,200,000)
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. The company that wins the bid to supply the computers for the One Laptop Per Family (OLPF) programme is also expected to deliver the first batch of instruments sixty days from the date of the contract.
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 first tender for the supply of the computers was quashed after none of the three bidders– CCS Guyana Ltd, Giftland OfficeMax and Digital Technology– was found to be sufficiently compliant with the first bid. Under the OLPF, the government plans to distribute 90,000 computers to poor families over the next two years. However, a number of controversies have swirled around the project since its launch. The government has said that 50,000 units are supposed to be distributed this year to single parents, the differently-abled and other persons who are considered members of low-income families.
A pilot for the project was initially launched in January, when 142 computers were ceremonially handed over to students from four entities. It was later disclosed that the computers were bought with a US$50,000 gift from Chinese company Huawei, after it had won a US$14 million contract to lay fibre optic cables here.
