Almost four years after it started, there is no word on the current status of the $3.1 billion e-governance project with the last of many missed deadlines having been in August.
In July, E-Governance project director Alexi Ramotar told Stabroek News that the long-delayed venture will be completed by the end of August and its coordinators will launch at least one initiative by the end of this year.
The $3.1 billion project, which includes the laying of a fibre optic cable from Brazil, commenced in January 2011 and was supposed to be completed in 2012.
However, several setbacks saw its completion delayed. In the July interview, Ramotar had said that all the needed signal towers have been erected and the fibre-optic cables which are to connect the towers had been run.
Stabroek News made multiple attempts to contact Ramotar over the past two weeks inclusive of visits to the E-Governance offices on Duke and Barrack streets, Kingston, Georgetown but was unsuccessful.
According to APNU Member of Parliament Joseph Harmon, Ramotar has gone “silent” on the status of the various project components and has yet to respond to his queries on the status of the project which he requested an update on some time ago.
Harmon said that the various concerns he had raised including the time taken to complete the project due to the many delays and the lack of experience on Ramotar’s part had resulted in Prime Minister Samuel Hinds offering to have an independent entity evaluate the project. To date this has not been established.
“Ramotar is obligated to give us an update and he has resoundingly gone silent…by him not saying anything it really shows the … lack of experience,” Harmon said recently.
The opposition MP said that the project lacks accountability and the total amount spent is ambiguous. “The problem with these large scale projects is they lack scrutiny as to how the projects are awarded,” he said.
According to Harmon, for such an enormous project, experience was crucial and Ramotar just did not have it. The project was riddled with delays since its inception in January 2011.
In 2013, Ramotar and his coordinators ran into problems when they attempted to erect one of the project’s 54 signal towers in the Plaisance Community Centre Ground, East Coast Demerara (ECD). After the community’s residents protested, consultations were held to ascertain an alternative site. It was eventually determined that the tower would be erected in Vryheid’s Lust, ECD. There were also issues with the laying of the fibre-optic cables to connect the network.
Ramotar had also said that the nature of the work to be done, coupled with the need for specialised equipment contributed to the delays. He also said that the project took some time “because it was a learning curve for us.”
Further, he had disclosed that the fibre-optic cables, which were run from Lethem to Georgetown, were not laid to the required specifications. As a result, the movement of heavy machinery caused some breakage and had to be redone. When he spoke to Stabroek News in July, Ramotar said that all issues including the broken cables had been resolved and the project was in the testing phase. He had said that this stage was expected to be completed by the end of August after which the project’s coordinators will be looking to begin offering services.
Harmon said that if an experienced project manager was given the contract or taken on in a consultancy, the delays could have possibly been avoided. “I am not being hard on young professionals, but there needs to be a balance,” he said. He asserted that Ramotar “lacks the experience and when they lack experience they tend to do things the only way they know best, which may not be the best way at all.” The fibre optic project was one of the ‘must have’ projects former President of Guyana Bharrat Jagdeo hyped during the months in the run up to the 2011 general elections and the cable was to have been the backbone of the government’s e-governance thrust.
With the implementation of the E-Governance Project, government is looking to lower the cost of doing business by providing high-quality frequencies at inexpensive costs. Ramotar had noted that companies looking to operate in Guyana are usually burdened with the responsibility of setting up their own ICT infrastructure.
Though necessary, this responsibility is very expensive and can deter investors, he had said. As such, the E-Governance Governance project is aimed at making investing in Guyana more attractive.
Huawei
Meantime, Stabroek News also asked Harmon if he was concerned with the cyber-spying allegations against the Chinese company Huawei which is the technology provider for the project. “You see we somehow have a knack in this country for choosing companies that have a track record for not doing upfront business and for not doing business above board,” he responded.
Countries such as the United States, Canada and Australia have cited issues with Huawei and have ongoing matters with the telecoms giant revolving around cyber espionage. In 2012, Canada invoked a national security clause barring Huawei from being hired by any firms building a secure communications network.
