Government is awaiting a report from head of the e-Governance project Alexei Ramotar and his team to decide on a way forward, not just on that project but also on the connectivity of others, Minister of State Joseph Harmon said yesterday, while also announcing that a review of the One Lap Top Per Family (OLPF) is also on the cards.
The controversial $3.1 billion e-Governance project that commenced in 2011, headed by the son of former president Donald Ramotar, ran into numerous problems and the last administration was in the process of having it rectified to the tune of millions of dollars.
Yesterday, Harmon said he met Alexei Ramotar last week at the project’s Kingston office where he would have reported on the advice he would have given to the previous administration even as he fielded questions from Harmon and government’s advisor on e-Governance Floyd Levi.
“My information was that because they had received certain information from a Venezuelan company that it would take close to US$20 million to fix the problems of that cable that the government was advised by Mr Ramotar’s unit that it was not feasible for them to proceed in that manner,” the minister said yesterday.
He said he listened to the project manager, who Harmon had previously said government would not continue with, and indicated that government required a proper brief from the unit on the project, on the subsequent decisions that were made and the advice which was given, after which government would review the project.
“He is still employed by the state and therefore I required that he produce that document to me so that this government can make certain decisions not just on the e-governance project but on the state of connectivity with the other projects,” the minister said.
He said it is not just about the cable but also about the towers and internet connectivity.
Harmon said the government wanted to be in a better position to equip the Guyana Police Force with a certain level of technology to go after the criminals.
“We are going to equip the schools and the government ministries of this nation with the capacity to have internet connectivity all around and we are going to equip the communities through communities’ hubs, like community centres, with internet connection,” the minister disclosed.
He said that the government has no intention of competing with the telephone companies or any other service provider in this regard.
Harmon also announced that Levi will also be part of the team to visit the OLPF office in the near future.
The PPP/C government had revealed that an agreement had been reached with Dax Engineering on March 18, 2015, amid deep concerns over the flawed cable, on which it had already expended over $1 billion.
Chief Executive Officer of Dax Engineering Company, Faisal Mohammed, had told Stabroek News that the rehabilitation would cost “somewhere about US$10 million.” Then head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon told Stabroek News on April 26 that under the agreement for the repairs, the contractor, Dax Engineering, would be have been given a number of pairs of fibres in that cable for its own use. The cable has 12 pairs of fibres.
He had said that the specific number of pairs that Dax would be given had not yet been finalized but said experts had explained to the government that for its e-Governance project it would not utilize more than “one or two pairs for a long, long time to come.”
The David Granger administration is yet to publicly state what decision it has taken as it relates to Dax Engineering.
