$110m contract sealed for online govt services

Camille Bethel, Trinidad Express, July 24, 2008

The $110 million contract between the Telecommunication Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT), Fujitsu and the Government to transform the Public Service by giving citizens access to more than 75 per cent of public services from the comfort of their homes has been signed.

"The contract has been signed and is now under what we call mobilisation," executive vice president of Fujitsu Transaction Caribbean Solution Ian Galt told the Express yesterday.

Speaking last week, Public Administration Minister Kennedy Swaratsingh told the media the online services should be rolled out by January 2010. The services are expected to include online registration of births, applications for Board of Inland Revenue (BIR) numbers and making tax payments.

Galt explained yesterday that the contract is unlike most of the contracts awarded for the construction going on in and around Port of Spain because both TSTT and Fujitsu are 100 per cent responsible for the success of the project.

"This is a joint and several contract which means it has no prime and subcontractor. We are both responsible for the successful delivery of this and if something should happen say for example cost overrun then we would both be responsible."

"We could not do it without TSTT's services and skills and they could not do it without our services and skills."

Galt added that the contract was signed at different times over the past couple days and so they are yet to decide on a date for a media briefing.

He said that the signing of the documents for what is the second phase of the contract was done differently than the first phase which was signed by all three parties at the same time four years ago because of the volume of documents that had to be signed.

"Rather than get everyone into a room we had to go in at different times and so TSTT has signed, we have signed and the Government was the last to sign."

The award letter for the project he said was received four months ago after approval was granted by the Central Tenders Board.

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