Opinions of Wednesday, 27 November 2013

Columnist: Boateng, Richmond

$129m security information deal

The government of Ghana approves a deal that allows the Chinese company ZTE to provide security infrastructure for the government.

This deal simply reminds me of the phrase, Create - Loot and Share Just before the contract was approved "cheap mobile phones of ZTE" brand were made available for MPs'

Well you will be forgiven to think that there maybe a possibility of corruption either to influence MPs or possibly a simple act of generosity (you decide).

But let's really think of the $129m for a moment....... Our dear country finances is currently on Life support, if Ghana was to be a company it would have been running at a loss. It doesnt take a genoius to place a company running in losses after 5 years of NDCs' mismanagement to place it in administration and we all know what follows....

I have a concern, look around and name me a developed country which is wasting resource on its own dedicated security network for voice and data?

Why should we be wasting LOANS on such useless project.

Ok, we need secure network for the government agencies to us for secure transmissions which is very good, but i can assure you there are reliable, secure and cheaper alternatives available. The country has both 2G and 3G network coverage by private network providers which can be used by the government with added encryption technologies to deliver the services that is require. We will be creating jobs and in return tax revenue for the govern, unlike the option of expanding China's economy.

Think of it this way, the law enforcement agencies and the government in the Uk sources it data and voice network from 2 sources one and primary the other as failover the agencies in turn secures the end to end communications this in turn means the overhead of the underline network is the responsibility of the private entity and Service Level Agreements are agreed with them for reliability and tolerance.

Christ sake! Don't we have anyone in the government who thinks about the people and can think outside the box? It looks like we have a bunch of people in government who can merely think inside the box.

Richmond Boateng

Richmondboateng@gmail.com