First tablets likely to arrive in April
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Chinese firm may be asked for an initial 50,000; Anudith rejects bribery claim
The Chinese supplier in the government’s “One Tablet Per Child” project is expected to deliver the first batch of the 900,000 devices by the middle of next month.
Representatives of Shenzhen Scope Scientific Development, which has now been officially confirmed as the chosen supplier, will likely fly to Thailand to sign the purchase contract with the Information and Communications Technology Ministry next week.
Office of the Basic Education Commission (Obec) secretary-general Chinnapat Bhumirat yesterday said delivery of the first batch of tablets would arrive within 15 days of the contract being signed.
“It is not going to be a government-to-government purchase contract” as had been widely believed, ICT Minister Anudith Nakornthap said after coming out of yesterday’s Cabinet meeting. “We will sign the contract directly with the Chinese firm.”
He said the Chinese government had just notified the Thai authorities that pursuant to its laws, the Chinese firm must sign the purchase contract itself.
“We have consulted the Council of State and the Office of the Attorney-General and they have confirmed such a contract can be entered,” the minister said.
He added that the purchase contract would simply be based on the memorandum of understanding inked by the two countries late last year.
Anudith said the contract would specify the exact number of tablets to be bought, the spares needed, the total cost and the number of offices the supplier would have to open in Thailand.
“It must open offices here to provide after-sales services,” he said.
Chinnapat said Obec would likely ask that the first batch of tablets total 50,000 units. “During the negotiating rounds, we talked about 2,000 units in the first lot, but we may well need to increase the number,” he said.
Chinnapat explained that Obec would need the devices early to train the trainers on their use before the end of April. In early May, Obec would then have to provide training to about 15,000 teachers and educational supervisors, too.
The agency chief said not all Prathom 1 students would get the devices at the start of the upcoming academic semester.
“I think the second batch will arrive when the semester has already started,” he said.
“The delivery will likely be made in three big lots.”
Critics have said that attempted bribery in the negotiations might have caused the delayed decision over which firm should be the supplier for the project, an allegation strongly denied by Anudith yesterday.
“They are just rumours,” he said.
Shenzhen Scope’s name emerged as the firm with the lowest bid on March 5, but the Cabinet only confirmed it as the supplier yesterday.
The ICT minister insisted that the procurement and selection process had been fully in line with the law.
“The panel in charge of procurement comprises senior government officials,” he said. “We have got a better deal” after talking to the suppliers again.
The Chinese firm will even upload about 300 learning elements into all of the tablets, he said, adding that although the unit price remained US$81 (Bt2,495), it now also covered transport of the devices to Laem Chabang Port.
The One Tablet Per Child project is based on an election policy pledge made by the ruling Pheu Thai Party.
“The Cabinet has already approved the purchase framework,” Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said yesterday.
