Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon yesterday stated that the much-vaunted $3.1 billion E-Governance fibre-optic cable project is in need of remedial work while adding that over $1 billion has already been spent.
The project had been initiated and championed by the Bharrat Jagdeo administration even though critics had raised a number of concerns about the burying of the cable and the use of the Chinese firm Huawei, among other issues. In recent months, government officials have not said anything about the long-delayed project.
When questioned yesterday, Luncheon said that he could not provide an exact figure of the project’s up-to-date cost but that “it has cost a pretty penny…and this is the construction itself. I can’t be accurate, but I can be pretty certain that is exceeds over $1 billion.”
He said that the $1 billion-plus is only for the construction aspect of the project which has been ongoing since 2011.
He made the pronouncements while addressing members of the media at the post-cabinet press briefing held at the Office of the President. The full cost of the project to date has been a well-guarded secret.
Luncheon said that he was directly involved in ongoing negotiations with a local and a foreign firm to conclude the “rehabilitation of the existing cable that traverses the over 200 km from its entry point (from Brazil to) Lethem to its termination here at Castellani House at Georgetown.”
“It is remediable but in so saying it is obvious I am saying that it is in need of being remedied,” the Head of the Presidential Secretariat continued. He did not elaborate on which firms were in discussions on rehabilitating the fibre optic cable component of the project, which has in the past been reported as having been repeatedly damaged due to the poor laying of the cable and road erosion among other issues.
Luncheon stated that while Guyana has yet to pay the Brazilians for bandwidth to be utilised in the project, Guyana’s neighbour to the south has been understanding that the project has not been completed as yet so no bandwidth had actually been used.
Experts in the field had argued that the lack of experience by Project Coordinator, Alexei Ramotar has led to many missed deadlines. One expert speaking to Stabroek News stated that running a continuous cable on the ground was bound to have severe problems from the inception however when this criticism was ventilated it was ignored by those in authority.
Damage to the cable at any one point would render it useless for a time being and having it buried, poorly at that, along the roadside left the fibre optic cable exposed to problems such as erosion. He told Stabroek News that the undersea option from a Caricom country, while more costly, would have in the long run been a far better deal as the timeline would not have been so long with so many avoidable delays.
Critics had accused the Jagdeo administration of wanting the cable running from Brazil to supply bandwidth that could be used by government-friendly businessmen without actually reducing the cost of bandwidth to Guyanese consumers.
One expert told Stabroek News “that cable, somebody could cut it every single day,” noting that in many parts along the Lethem road the cable remains exposed.
In July, E-Governance project director Ramotar told Stabroek News that the long-delayed venture would be completed by the end of August and its coordinators would launch at least one initiative by the end of this year.
The $3.1 billion project, which includes the laying of the 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. This resulted in a news item in Monday’s Stabroek News pointing out that the government was mum on this costly and long-stalled project.
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 it.
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.
Huawei
Luncheon yesterday touched on the Chinese company Huawei’s connection to the project and stated that while the fibre optic cable has run into serious problems the towers, which had been erected to deliver a large-scale internal network that would support government entities, did not have the same level of issues.
He did say that the delay in the cable’s operationalization had created hiccups for the towers and the Huawei component. He said that the cable was to provide the bandwidth that would allow the former project to “mature into its ideal proportions.”
Harmon had expressed concern over the government’s decision to partner with Huawei as the technology provider considering 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.
“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,” Harmon had told Stabroek News.
