AN illegal attempt by the Enmore/Hope Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) to sell computers donated to those communities was blocked on Thursday by officials from the eGovernment Project Execution Unit.
This was according to a statement from the Ministry of Public Telecommunication on Friday.
The statement explained that a minuted decision was made by the NDC at their statutory meeting of 16 November, 2016, to sell 15 computers which were donated by the Basic Needs Trust Fund. The ministry noted in its statement that by virtue of these computers being donated for the benefit of residents of the communities, it was illegal to sell them.
Upon receipt of a report of the impending sale, the ministry said that a team from the eGovernment unit was dispatched to the NDC on Thursday, April 6, 2017, to investigate the report. On arrival at the NDC, the officials, in the company of officers attached to the State Assets Recovery Unit (SARU), found the 15 computers in a “state of disrepair,” the statement read.
The statement revealed that the units were improperly stored in dusty conditions, and there was no evidence to suggest that the computers were used recently. The PPP, which controls the NDC, had claimed that the computers were being used to teach evening classes for residents.
Having made the discovery, the ministry said that the computers will be returned to the Enmore community once it has been agreed that they would not be sold or otherwise disposed of.
“They [the computers] will first be serviced. eGovernment fully intends to support the residents of Enmore/Hope under its Community Information and Communication Technology (ICT) hub initiative which provides free Internet service and computer skills training,” the ministry said.
To date, eGovernment has overseen the establishment of 51 ICT Community hubs in Regions Two, Three, Four, Five, and Six, including Crabwood Creek, Liverpool, Port Mourant, Wales, Sophia, Charity, Dartmouth, Good Hope, and Masakenari in Region Nine.
The Telecommunications Ministry also disclosed that so far, over 98,000 citizens in 51 communities have access to free Internet, with extra bandwidth available after school and business hours, and on weekends and holidays. Secondary schools, technical and vocational institutes and other state tertiary institutions have also been connected to the national ICT networks, the statement added.