Duffuor: I authorised payment for clearing, storage of laptops

Accra, June 10, GNA - The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Kwabena Duffuor on Wednesday confirmed that no payments had been made for computers for the One Laptop per Child project.

He also confirmed that he authorised payment for just the clearing and storage of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) computers at the time they arrived and not the purchase of the computers as was being alleged. He said the GH¢23,239.12 figure published by the media was the cost of the clearing and storage of the 1,000 laptops and not the actual payment for the 10,000 which cost US$2,050,000.00.

"MOFEP wishes to put on record that although Letters of Credit for the payment of the 10,000 laptops were established, nothing has so far been paid," a statement signed by Mr Abdul Hakim Ahmed of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning said.

It said the OLPC shipped the initial 1,000 laptops out of the total 10,000 to the Ministry of Education as a gesture of goodwill.

"MOFEP will be working together with the Ministry of Education to pay the OLPC the cost of the 1,000 laptops which have already been cleared and are in the custody of the Ministry of Education. The Ministry will withhold payment for the remaining 9,000 pending a proposed review of the transaction," the statement said.

It said when the OLPC programme was conceived and discussed by stakeholders in 2007, a joint memorandum was submitted to Cabinet by the Ministers of Education, Science and Sports (MOE55), and Finance and Economic Planning.

It said on April 19, 2007 Cabinet endorsed the proposals and requested the Ministers of Finance and Economic Planning and Education, Science and Sports to initiate preparatory work through consultations with One Laptop per Child to enable Ghana to join the OLPC programme.

"The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) programme became one of the policy initiatives contained in the 2007 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana which indicates the usage of computers in schools."

The statement said subsequently, Parliament approved the programme and allocated GH¢3 million as seed money for this programme under the 2008 HIPC budgetary allocation for the Ministries of Communication, Education and MOFEP.

It said MOFEP and MOESS, jointly agreed at a meeting to request three companies to pilot their laptops in two to five primary schools, for at least six months, to ascertain their robustness, user-friendliness, and durability.

OLPC, a non-governmental and non-profit making organization, set up primarily to manufacture laptops for primary schools responded to the request and provided equipment and funded two pilot sites - one deprived urban, one rural.

The statement said on September 8, 2008, the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports wrote to the Chief Executive of Public Procurement Authority to request single source to purchase 10,000 laptops at a unit cost of US$195.00 from One Laptop per Child.

"The Chief Executive in his letter no. PPA/CE0/1349/08 dated 18th September 2008 wrote to grant approval for the sole source of the 10,000 laptops from One Laptop per Child at a cost of U5$195.00 which happened to be a wrong quote for the laptops.

"On 23rd October 2008, the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports wrote again a letter No. MOESS/0tPC/2008 to the Chief Executive for the revision of the unit cost from US$195 to US$205, which was concurrently approved by the Public Procurement Authority letter no. PPA/CE0/1574/08 dated 29th October 2008.

"On 31st October 2008 the ministry signed its portion of the contract and sent it to OLPC in USA. "On 19th November 2008, OLPC also signed its portion of the contract for the provision of the 10,000 laptops." The statement said the Ministry of Education as a result wrote to the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning to approve the release of funds to pay for the laptops in letter no. M0ES5/0PLC/01/08 dated on December 3, 2008. "In line with its statutory duties, MOFEP authorized the Bank of Ghana through the Controller and Accountant General to establish letters of credit based on the agreement signed between the Ministry of Education and the OLPC project. 10 June 09