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Final cost for Govt. fibre optic cable still to be determined – Dr Luncheon

Feb 26, 2010 News

By Gary Eleazar

Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon, during a post cabinet press briefing, stated that the final cost for the fibre optic to be landed in Guyana from Brazil by the Government is yet to be determined.
Dr Luncheon said that the initial investment which was announced by Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh, during his budget debate, will be the total expenditure for this year.
According to Dr Luncheon, it would not be possible at this point in time to say with any degree of certainty what the final cost would be.”You could probably talk about a ballpark figure…one should avoid speculation beyond 2010.”
Dr Luncheon was adamant that it is in no way a strange situation to undertake a project and not have a clear idea of what the final cost will be. He said that there are some projects which a final cost could be known and others which would be difficult to predict.
He explained that world market prices change and the cost of an item that would have to be procured in five years’ time could change.
Dr Luncheon added that the Government did not have a figure for the entire cost of project with the exception of landing of it.
Alliance For Change Chairman Khemraj Ramjattan had recently told this newspaper that the true cost of the cable is in the vicinity off US$37M as against the just over $US4M that is being touted by the Government.
This information was corroborated by a senior official in the telecommunications industry.
The sum that is said to be spent to land the cable is just of over two per cent of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product.
Ramjattan had argued during the budget debates that the cable would be used to aid the proposed Central Intelligence Agency in spying on Guyanese.
He said that the Government will be using the same ploy as is used yearly by the ruling administration to return to the House and seek supplementary provisions to complete the venture.
Aubrey Norton, of the People’s National Congress Reform, recently chided the Government in the 2010 budget debates over the proposed expenditure for the cable.
Norton told the House that GT&T has expended US$30M to land a fibre optic cable on the sea wall thus ensuring there is the capacity to provide all the service that Guyana needs.
He said that this investment will see some 64 gigawaves which will bring the capacity to 3000 times more than current capacity.
In response to claims by the Government that their cable will be used to ensure redundancy, he drew reference to the fact that GT&T has also stated that it will upgrade the Americas II cable which means that there will be additional capacity.
Norton stressed that, “even if the government goes ahead with its cable, what will happen when there is disruption and the government has no back-up…e-government, including security, will be in trouble.”
He said too that government must not get involved in the telecommunication sector and should leave it to the private sector.

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