COVID-19 exposed Michael Browne’s e-books scheme, Lewis calls for forensic audit

Senator Richard Lewis, Senate Minority Leader and UPP Candidate for St. John’s Rural West, has called for a Forensic Audit into E-Books Scandal.

The following are his full remarks at the 4^th UPP Virtual Public Meeting, held on June 15:

It has been five years and counting and the time has long passed for the ALP 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.

 

You might recall some of the many breaches:

1. Individuals signed a contract that they had no authority to sign
2. This contract was not vetted by the legal authorities
3. This contract did not go before the Tender’s Board
4. 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!
5. Fortuna Pix stated that it paid teachers to create some content but the cheques issued were BOE cheques.So your and my Education Levy money paid for this and not Fortuna Pix.

Prime Minister Gaston Browne admitted that the law was breached, yet to this day, not one soul has been held accountable.

 

The lie was ultimately exposed during the lockdown last year.  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.

 

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!

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