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N3bn Enugu ICT project suffers setback

By on April 5, 2015

Indications have emerged that barely two months to the end of the current administration, a controversial N3bn Information and Communication Technology project initiated by Enugu State Government may not get off the ground before the May 29 handover date.

This is happening nine months after the state’s Commissioner for Information, Mr. Chuks Ugwoke, announced the approval of N3bn for the project by the Enugu State Executive Council in June 2014.

The commissioner had said the ICT facilities to be installed in the state secretariat and the governor’s office would gulp N2.7bn.

Ugwoke noted that the project which would involve the procurement and installation of sundry components was aimed at providing more conducive environment for enhanced efficiency and productivity of workers.

However, findings by our correspondent on Friday showed no signs that the project would commence soon.

A reliable source in the State Government House told our correspondent that no contractor had been asked to bid for the project.

The source also said the state government had yet to acquire facility.

When contacted on the development, Ugwoke did not respond to text messages sent to his telephone. He also did not pick his telephone calls either.

The Chief Press Secretary to Enugu State Governor, Mr. Chukwudi Achife, referred our correspondent to the Senior Personal Assistant to the governor on ICT, Mr. Okechukwu Igbonekwu.

When contacted, Igbonekwu also referred our correspondent to Tenece, a company he claimed was handling the contract for the installation of the ICT equipment.

Our correspondent had been on Tenece for more than a week on the matter. The company could neither come up with a response nor a rebuttal to the allegations.

But a former President of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria, Chris Uwaje, described as ‘suspicious’ the proposed N3bn for the ICT project.

Uwaje said, “They are simply manipulating the people; otherwise a consultant, and not the Commissioner for Information, would have been on ground to make the announcement and present the Bill of Quantities.

“In such ICT project, you need a Request for Proposal, which will detail all the costs, techniques, support systems and the capacity. But there is none.”

He wondered if the government was building a data centre or providing cloud that would warrant spending such a huge amount.

The Vice-President, Cisco, Mr. David Meads, shared Uwaje’s view, saying, apart from Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, no state government in Nigeria had spent that much on an ICT project.

He said, “The inadequate allocation of resources to the advancement of the ICT in their states has been hindering the Smart State Initiative.”

Uwaje, who is also the Chairman of Mobile Software Solutions Limited, said there was no way the state government could spend above N60m on such project.

He said, “When you look at modern facilities, all what you need is to have a fibre optic. It is from the fibre optic link that you draw connectivity to each of the offices. Then when you get to each office, you draw to the computers. The total sum would then be served into the central server.

“What the Enugu State Government basically needs are just a fibre optic with broadband, a bandwidth and a server – with a central server and a backup server to the central server.”

 

[Punch]