Cabinet pleased with considerable progress of OLPF implementation on all fronts
…overwhelming public response consolidates Government’s ICT vision
The Government is very pleased with the considerable progress of the One Laptop per Family initiative, and has noted that 33,000 applications have been received leading up to the deadline.
This is according to Minister of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh, who along with Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon and Project Manager of the OLPF Sesh Sukhdeo, hosted a press conference at Office of the President yesterday to discuss the project.
“I am happy to say that over 33,000 application forms had been received (leading up to the deadline), indicating what we believe to be an overwhelmingly strong response and a predictably strong interest in the OLPF programme,” Dr. Singh said. Checks with the OLPF project office revealed that close to another 15,000 completed forms submitted through postage and by hand at the road Show and at the project office on the day of the deadline (May 31) were being sorted, while applicants are still continuing to rush the office to deliver completed forms.
According to the minister, the application forms were submitted through the postal system, in person, at the road shows and through the online applications facility. “These application forms are currently being entered into a database for processing,” he said.
The deadline for the submission of applications was announced previously as the end of May 2011. “We have reflected on the extremely strong response. We have had two or three days post-deadline. We see a steady stream of applications continuing to come in and we now have the opportunity to re-examine the timelines and schedules in light of the necessity to retender, as a result of which the decision has been taken to continue to receive applications forms because we do know that there are significant numbers of persons out there in possession of application forms and are desirous of submitting these,” he said.
However, while the process is open for those application forms still to be submitted, no new application forms will be issued.
Dr. Singh said considerable progress has been made on all fronts associated with implementation of the project and notwithstanding the necessity to retender for the procurement of the laptops, “we are satisfied that we are still on track to achieving timely execution of the project.”
Sukhdeo spoke specifically about the tender process and why it has become necessary to have a ‘do over’ of it, and to do a retender.
He said that the evaluation team reviewed the information submitted and found that there were three bidders overall: CCS Guyana Limited, Giftland Office Max and Digital Technologies.
“What we found on two of the bids was information which required further clarification from the manufacturers. In the case of Giftland the bid document had ‘Lenova’ as a brand, with the laptop provided being a Lenovo. We had to evaluate with the manufacturers of Lenovo the actual laptop that was provided. Lenovo confirmed that the laptop was not a manufactured item from their plant,” he said.
“As you know one of the areas within the tender document also asks for a manufacturer’s authorisation. In this case, we could not obtain the manufacturer’s authorisation. In the case of Digital Technologies, the information provided also includes representations in terms of information on behalf of themselves and the manufacturer. There were some statements made in the bidding documents provided. We clarified those with the manufacturer and the manufacturer could not confirm whether those statements [related to the provision of services] were accurate,” Sukhdeo said.
“That left us with, obviously, CCS,” he said, and this company failed to meet all of the technical requirements spelt out on the tender document. He said that after the bids were received and the evaluation done, the results of the evaluation were sent to Cabinet for its consideration.
The minister said it is anticipated that the new specifications will be concluded by next week and the retender launched. “We expect that the tender period will be 30 days, following which the usual evaluation process will be engaged in. This would still see us being able to advance implementation, certainly during the course of this year, [before the end of the third quarter],” he said.
“The specifications that were outlined in the tender document I would not describe as non-functional in any way, because they are specifications for which laptops are manufactured by large, reputable manufacturers. The specifications that were included in the document were responded to and even though there may have been specific elements which were not complied with, it did not render any of their machines non-functional,” he said.
He added, “In the process of receiving the bids, in the process of observing how many companies submitted bids in response to those specifications required in the tender document, in response to the testing of the samples that have been provided, I think there has been an accumulation of experience that caused some reflection on whether there may be ways the specifications could be tweaked or refined, [with a view to broadening] the pool of possible interested suppliers, so that you have a more competitive process.”
Dr. Singh added that one critical issue that emerged during this testing period was the demonstration of the capability to provide after sales support. “If you are going to supply 27,000 laptops, supported by a warranty which involves certain obligations on your part as a supplier, then it is critical that there is a demonstrated ability to service that warranty,” the minister said.
However, this should not affect the implementation of the project. “So we don’t anticipate that the timelines of the project are jeopardised in any way by the necessity to retender. Obviously, the timelines will be a little bit protracted given the necessity to retender,” Dr. Singh said.
Outlining the verification process for applicants, Sukhdeo said that priority will be given to single parents and differently-abled people and others, who fall within the income bracket criteria of a $50,000 or less monthly income, before proceeding to serve the other category of applicants that would qualify for phase one (those earning $100,000 or less per month). “We will be working with verification teams. We will have our own staff and other individuals to verify the status of single parents and for the differently-abled. Outside of that, we will also be looking at families based on income levels. We have to verify that the income provided is correct. We will have to talk to families, speak to employers, verify through pay-slips etc,” he said. “We anticipate 50,000 – 60,000 application forms to be received, if not more. To enter that information onto the system [will] take a few weeks and we would have to run some trials in terms of the data that is there to make sure everything is correct and then go through the verification process. Verification will also be done through the communities,” he said.
Sukhdeo said that upgrades of the software for the computers that might become necessary from time to time will be done at the ICT hubs at no cost to the person receiving the laptops. Further, the user of the computer will also have access to the ICT hubs in their community, as a place to advance their IT knowledge and skills long after the mandatory OLPF orientation training sessions would have been completed .