NBZLive FB Page Release:
The Only Thing “Fake” are GOB’s figures – We Stand By Our ReportThe Ministry of Education issued a press release on Independence Day refuting claims in an NBZLive report regarding the procurement of 15,500 tablets for distribution to high school and some primary school students. Minister of Education, Patrick Faber and Prime Minister Dean Barrow informed the nation in the Wednesday, September 16, 2020 meeting of the House of Representatives that the government is “fronting” $7Million BZD for the 15,500 units.
The figures put forward suggest that the GOB is “fronting” $451.61BZD per device which is an exorbitant price to pay per unit at bulk rate. Faber went to lengths to disavow notion that GOB isn’t “fronting” anything near that figure. Minister Faber explained on Wednesday, September 16, 2020:Transcript Courtesy Channel 7News”The monies that are being allotted will yield 15,500 tablets to this nation. I don’t even want to call it a tablet, because the truth is what they are trying to minimize as a tablet has develop so far that in fact if you go to big corporations in the United States, people walk around with a tablet with a keyboard attached. That is what their computer is now. But a 10 inch tablet, I think it’s Logic 10.1, something like that is the brand. You could go and look it up. I just looked it up and the retail price of it on the internet goes between $446.00 and $514.00 Belize. But that’s not what we are going to pay for it of course. Because as my friend said they do these transactions all the time it would seem. When you buy in bulk you get a better price, but when it was communicated to me that this is the device that would best suit our needs, I said I won’t accept that. We need more. So we insisted on getting more until we got all the software that we needed loaded on and just for your benefit you will know that the main bit of software that we are using on it which is Office 365 is given to this country in a licensed format free by the Microsoft Corporation, but to load it onto all the devices is a cost. I also insisted that we get a 3 year warranty on the devices, so that if there is some malfunction on the devices, that that is thrown in. I insisted that the students will get a carrying case for their device. I insisted that the students will get the Bluetooth keyboard that attaches, so that in fact when those students are using those devices you would think it’s a full computer and in truth, that is what it is. It is a big 10 inch screen with a case, with the keyboard tagged on to it connecting by Bluetooth and even when they told me that I said that’s not enough, so they threw in a headset, because you know the students will be on Zoom and Teams. Teams is what goes with the Microsoft package. It is a very loaded package for the price that we are getting it.”We invite the Government of Belize to publish the pro forma for the order showing that they are paying less per unit or are getting more units for $7MillionBZD. As for “the man (Vishal Sabnani and Karan Sabnani, owners of Cellular World) being no friend of ours”, we find that incredibl since that “PUP financier” is now the sole importer for BTL – a gig that once belonged to another company who the owner is said to be aligned with the UDP. Some way to treat someone who is not a friend of yours. Treat us like you treat the owners of Cellular World Enterprise, – show us the bill. Until the Government is able to show otherwise, we stand by our report – National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number and all.
