OPPOSITION Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo on Thursday admitted that the G$1.3B fibre optic cable project which the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) government undertook while in office was a failure.

Speaking at a press briefing on Thursday at the Office of the Opposition Leader on Church Street, Jagdeo, who has been criticising the current government over the past several months regarding public spending, said that the fibre optic project was poorly planned.

“It was a failure, the design parameters were all wrong,” Jagdeo said. He was at time responding to a question regarding the current government’s Information Technology Communication (ICT) projects across the country. Jagdeo said the plan of the previous government was to ensure that several aspects of its ICT plans were implemented in stages. These included connectivity across Guyana. He said the previous government was planning to give new companies the right to bring in fibre optic projects as he noted that Guyana needed more fibre connectivity to terminate within her territory.

As he continued, Jagdeo said the PPP government sought to build the cable from Brazil but he noted that it was not properly planned. “It was a big problem,” he said. “Our end game was total connectivity, lay fibres all across Guyana, bring in more fibres,” he said, noting the plan was to connect all state institutions and move into an e-governance mode.
The APNU+AFC administration scrapped the project citing the huge sums required to resuscitate the project which was being supervised by Alexi Ramotar, the son of former President Donald Ramotar.

Minister Hughes said in October 2017 that the former administration wasted millions of dollars on the project. She said several entities including the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GTT) and government did a study and it was documented that it made no sense to spend money to resuscitate the project.

The government has been undertaking several initiatives to develop the ICT sector here. Recently, Minister Hughes joined Finance Minister Winston Jordan and Chinese Ambassador Cui Jianchen late last month to sign the Concessional Loan Agreement with the China EXIM Bank to start the National Broadband project.

The Ministry of Public Telecommunications noted that the project is considered the first major project in the government’s Green State initiative and it is also a vehicle by which many of government’s commitments to the nation will be fulfilled. “It will bridge the information accessibility gap between the Hinterland and Coastland,” the ministry said.