WILL THERE BE AN ADVANCE?

May 05, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The bids are in for the One Laptop per Family Project, the flagship mass distribution programme of the Jagdeo administration which aims at distributing some 90,000 laptops, one to every family in Guyana.
It is an extremely ambitious programme, the likes of which has never been seen in Guyana. It is expected to dramatically change the way we do things and improve factor productivity, and in so doing allow Guyana to attain improvements in a wide array of activities over a very short period of time.
If the goals of the programme are met, then things will not be the same in Guyana. A computer in every home will open tidal waves of opportunities especially in communications and information technology and would allow for a whole range of services to be established, creating more jobs than Guyanese can fill and placing a great deal of money in the hands of our people. At the same time, it will allow for dramatic improvements in education since almost the entire student population would be connected to the Internet and have far more material at their disposal.
This should lead to a significant increase in the pass rate within our schools and the development of new modes of delivery of education something that in itself will be of great assistance to school children.
For unemployed and stay-at home moms, they can now tap into the many opportunities that are available for working from home by providing services not only to local companies but also to international companies. There are so many things that can happen as a result of the one laptop per family program and the new fiber optic cable from Brazil.
But these things cannot simply be anticipated. They must be planned and the question that immediately arises is whether Guyana has the ability to execute a project of this scale. Since we are told that some 90,000 computers are to be distributed and considering all that has to go into the project, the final cost is estimated to be around $27 M US dollars or close to $5,4 billion dollars. This is a tremendous sum of money which requires serious planning.
So can Guyana bring off this project? The first hurdle will be to have the computers supplied. It should be noted that the bid documents specifies at Clause 5 that the company supplying the computers must demonstrate evidence of technical experience, financial capacity, must have the manufacturers authorization and provide warranties.
Now this is a big task for the following reasons. On the issue of providing warranties for 90,000 computers or even 30,000 for a population spread over hundreds of miles, including in hinterland locations, is a difficult proposition made more problematic by the fact that many of those who will be receiving the computers would not have the full knowledge of using a computer and therefore there is bound to be a higher than usual rate of downed equipment due to improper use.
But the bid specifications also call for financial capacity.
If the first tranche of computers is 30,000 and assuming that each costs round US$200 per unit inclusive to shipping, handling etc, then it means that the successful bidder has to find US$6M upfront for the first set of orders. This is a huge investment to make.
A few years ago, Guyana hosted Cricket World Cup and a great many plans were set in train. Works began on two major hotels but it was soon discovered that for the hotels to be finished on time, the government had to take the unprecedented and controversial step of lending money for the completion of these hotels and would be repaid by services and not by cash.
One has to ask exactly what financial arrangements are likely to be set in place for the supply of the first batch of computers. Is there any possibility, if needs be, for the government having to make an advance to the successful bidder?
It is important and without at all attempting to prejudice the evaluation process, for the government to indicate clearly whether it intends to avoid having to pay an advance up front for this one laptop project just like it paid upfront a few years ago for the supply of medicinal drugs under a major contract.
There should be no entertainment of anyone having to be paid an advance. Whoever wins that contract is going to make a handsome sum of money and they should not be envied. But it should be made clear that there will be no advance payments because the contract specifically calls for technical and financial capacity.

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