Listers,

This is probably the most important decision Kaimenyi has made to date and also that will define his 5 year term in Education. And I totally agree with him.

We are being let down by lack of creativity in our Procurement processes, yet we have persons who profess to have Masters & PHDs in Procurement, but they they can't think beyond their pockets.

Thing is, in large scale procurement, you have to look at how to not only get the best value, but how to manage the risk and also, how to ensure fair play amongst the vendors.

Any tender for a country-wide project just can't be awarded to a single vendor. This doesn't happen in industries like roads (Can you imagine GoK saying that they are issuing out a tender to tarmac every road in Kenya that will end up with a single vendor?), but in ICT we do it with impunity.

Since this is a Country Wide Project, the first thing that needs to be made are the standards and specifications for these laptops. Lock them down and then ask Original Equipment Manufacturers to quote on how much it would cost to supply these laptops in batches of 1,000. You do not need HP, IBM, Lenovo. Go and talk to the OEM Manufacturers directly, and let them give you Laptops branded KenyaONE with those specs.

If you are buying 20K Laptops, you can make Laptops to be made to your specification, unbranded at almost half the cost. How do I know, we once had special hardware made for a client here, who was buying just 500 pieces with full support and warranty.

If you think I am kidding, just take a look here http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/oem-laptop.html. You get laptops with Intel Core 2 Duo Chips & Motherboards at between 100 - 200 USD depending on quantities.

How do you support them? Give those contracts to every University, College and Youth Group that gets registered and the parts can be bought centrally then the local guys can buy them from there and resell to the schools.

How do you ensure quality? Ask KEBS to approve Samples. Give kids in select schools to play around with them for a month and get feedback, Once approved, then every laptop after that has to meet those specs as per those Samples.

And before anyone screams that China makes 'cheap' products, remember every major manufacturer including the one that makes your treasured iPad, manufacturers them in China. Even one DJ CK was shocked how our average perception of China is during a recent visit http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/business/2013/08/lessons-from-uhurus-landmark-china-visit/

Regards

Waithaka Ngigi

A1.iO

On Thu, Oct 17, 2013 at 11:33 AM, Walubengo J <jwalu@yahoo.com> wrote:

NAIROBI, KENYA: The Government has now cancelled the Laptop Project tender for schools over a budget deficit as bidders exceeded the budgetary projections.

Education Cabinet Secretary Prof Jacob Kaimenyi announced that the tender process was canceled as lowest bidder quoted Ksh 32B against an anticipated budget of Ksh 20B.

read more @
http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/?articleID=2000095732&story_title=jubilee-laptop-project-halted

~~~~
Not sure if it is true but I think Kenyans need to ask serious questions on this. We cannot spend our time and effort putting forward ideas on how to best implement a high-risk project and then suddenly we are told it is over...kapput.. finito..go home. just like that!

For example If money is the problem why not modify the project to fit 20B the budget? I still think 20B would be sufficient if this project was tilted and tweaked towards the form1 student labs or even university students. The idea was noble and timely but execution and target audience for me (not Yawe :-) has always been doubtful.

Right now we are told suppliers asked for 32B Ksh and but we had 20B so cancel the project, no questions asked and perhaps wait for 2-3yrs later to read from the Auditor General about how the 20B was (mis?)used.

I think the CS for ICT should make a pitch to salvage the project in the modified form - assuming ofcourse the project was truly intended.

walu.

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