According to Lewis it has been five years and counting and the time has long passed for the ABLP to account for the shenanigans surrounding the E-books project. “We say it is high time for them to tell us ‘Wey de money garn!’. They must not be allowed to get away with this one”.
He outlines some of the breaches many may recall: Individuals signed a contract that they had no authority to sign. This contract was not vetted by the legal authorities. This contract did not go before the Tender’s Board.
This contract had an annual user fee of $13 million that Cabinet said it never approved but user fee for what? There was nothing to pay for! Fortuna Pix stated that it paid teachers to create some content but the cheques issued were BOE cheques.
The senator says, Prime Minister Gaston Browne admitted that the law was breached, yet to this day, not one soul has been held accountable. During his fiery presentation he stated that the lie was ultimately exposed during the lockdown last year.
He says, The rip-off was made evident. There were no E-books! Not a single one! The whole thing turned out to be one gigantic failure of epic proportions and all this just when we needed the E-books most.
Below is the following statement made by Mr. Richard Lewis regarding the E- Book scandal during his fiery presentation on June 15th 2021 during the UPP’s virtual Rally. The ALP Administration and the Ministry of Education failed our students and our teachers.
Failure! Like when you undress, step into the shower; turn on the pipe, and all you feel is air.
We now know that the project is dead! The contract has expired and we did not benefit one thing from it. The old tablets are fit for the garbage dump and we have no content of significance to call our own. The people of Antigua and Barbuda were deceived! We were robbed! Conned! Taken to the cleaners!
These are the monies spent on this self-enrichment scheme:
Initial Cost of Contract = EC$24.3 million
User/License Fees (2016 – 2020) = EC$51.5 million
76 million dollars of the people’s money squandered on an ALP self-enrichment scheme. 76 million dollars gone ah gwassa. Gaston Browne,We are talking about millions of dollars that could have been used to bring meaningful and much needed relief to the people, especially at a time like this.
Londel Benjamin, The people and especially the children of Rural West could have easily gotten a secondary school out of that, to replace the one that the ALP huffed from them, without a word from you. It is indeed a travesty! It is indeed unconscionable! Highway robbery!
The ALP Administration turned a blind eye to the rip off of this nation’s resources. And they must pay for their misdeeds! We must make them pay! A forensic audit of the E-books project must be called at once. We the taxpayers of Antigua & Barbuda demand it! UPP’s Candidate for St. John’s Rural West, Mr. Richard Lewis.
