Only half of the 90,000 laptops project…MP’s children held key positions

May 29, 2016 News

An ambitious project initiated in early 2011 by the Bharrat Jagdeo administration to distribute 90,000

Former OLPF head, Margot Boyce

laptops to poor families was fraught with management problems and questionable costs.
The project fell short of expectations with just over 50,000 units or 55 percent distributed.
According to a special investigation report by chartered accountants, Ram & McRae, into the financial operations and functioning of the One Laptop per Family (OLPF) Project, the initiative was officially launched on January 21, 2011 at the Guyana International Conference Centre by Jagdeo.
The project was halted last year by the new coalition Government pending the investigation.
In total, the project managed to acquire 55,145 laptops, of which only 50,009 were distributed.
Initially, in 2011, the Government of Guyana signed an agreement with Haier Electrical Appliances Corp. Ltd to purchase 27,000 laptops at a cost of US$7,561,296 ($1.54B).
Ram and McRae said that it found that the project was administered and contracted by the Office of the President.
“The scope of our engagement was limited by the fact that management was unable to provide a number of significant documents for our review. We also encountered the circumstance where the Project Manager, Ms. Margot Boyce, and the Deputy Project Manager, Mr. Azariah Asim, resigned during the course of our engagement. In both cases, their last day for work was August 14, 2015.”
The report concluded that financial systems and internal controls governing the project were generally weak.
Another major issue that was flagged was the training for laptop recipients. It was intended that the OLPF programme would have facilitated 10 hours of training to all laptop recipients.
“However, the Project Manager, Ms. Margot Boyce, decided to cease the training aspect of the project during the last quarter of 2013. Our rough estimate is that some 14,138 laptops were distributed without the requisite training.”
While the lower level positions were advertised, political considerations may have influenced the appointment of the more senior staff, including two sons of a former Government Member of Parliament, Joseph Hamilton, the report disclosed.
Parliamentarian’s children

Former President, Bharrat Jagdeo, distributing a laptop in late 2011, shortly before he finished his constitutional two terms in office.

The two sons were Azariah Asim and Abdalla Hamilton. Asim was hired by the ICT Hub of the OLPF Initiative on April 1, 2011.
“In our opinion, Mr. Asim did not have the necessary qualification(s) or relevant experience to operate within his initial designated position and even less, as Deputy Project Manager.”
Hamilton was recruited as Warehouse Manager of the project.
Investigations also found that the project was grossly over staffed.
“The project had as much as 16 departments and an average of 133 employees during the years 2012 to 2014. The Project Manager was unable to justify the number of departments and employees.”
The report also flagged the theft of 103 laptops in 2012. “Following investigations by the police, the services of seven employees were terminated by the Office of the President on February 22, 2013. The missing laptops which cost $5,912,200 were not recovered.”
The auditors conducted a 100% physical inventory count and subsequently preformed a reconciliation based on the documents provided.
“Our procedures revealed that management was unable to account for an additional 1,875 laptops costing $109,168,913. We believe that this matter should be referred to the police for a full investigation.”
Meanwhile, with regards to laptops in stock, auditors found 3,158 laptops, costing $191M…but all were damaged.
“We have been unable to determine whether these are beyond repair. It is likely therefore that of the total number of laptops acquired by purchase or grant of 55,145, some 5,136 were either stolen or are defective. In dollar terms, the actual loss to the Government is $306M.”
Opaque funding
According to Ram and McRae, the financing of the project was opaque and funded out of moneys received by the National Frequency Management Unit (NFMU) which was itself retaining funds otherwise payable into the Consolidated Fund.
“The project did not maintain any proper system of accounting and the only accounting done was by way of instructions to the NFMU to approve invoices for payment. There was no accounting for transactions executed on behalf of the project nor was there any reconciliation of the records of the OLPF and the NFMU.”
Auditors conducted “substantive testing and expenditure analysis” confirmed that $1.26B was paid by the NFMU for the administrative, employment, training and distribution expenses incurred by OLPF during the period May 9, 2011 to May 31, 2015.
The second largest type of expenditure was administrative expenses which amounted to $422.8M or 33% of the total costs.
According to the report, the principal purpose of the project was to distribute laptops to low income families countrywide.
“Total distribution cost amount to $35,291,406 or three per cent of the total cost of the project. The average cost of distribution per laptop was therefore $706. Total training cost amounted to $70,750,427 or six per cent of the total cost. The average cost of training per laptop was therefore $1,415.”
The auditors believe that the general expenses of the OLPF were exorbitant and could have been curtailed by management.