Cabinet approves more than Gy$200M for purchasing of original text books

TIMES INT'L

More than Gy$200M has been approved for the procurement of textbooks to be distributed to students in the public school system, but Government may have to appeal to the National Assembly for increased funding to maintain the level of coverage normally applied. This was revealed by Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon at his post-Cabinet press briefing on Wednesday.
Dr. Luncheon conceded that since the cost of sourcing original texts not printed in Guyana would be more than acquiring them locally or acquiring photocopied versions, there would be a shortfall on the number of books needed.
While commending Guyana’s bilateral partners who worked behind the scenes to provide the books at prices affordable to the country, Dr. Luncheon stated, “Even with the most generous price cutting concessions by publishers and others, we cannot procure the same volume.  As a consequence, one can anticipate that we will be going to the National Assembly for ramping up social sector expenditure to maintain the level of coverage in the educational sector in so far as text books and that kind of material are required.”
He pointed to the fact that even with the concessionary prices obtained for the original texts; it still exceeds the unit cost of a photocopied version.
The issue of textbook procurement surfaced last month with media allegations that Government is infringing on the copyright laws of Guyana. The allegations were focused on one of the policy considerations for procurement tenders, which stated that the books supplied, must be as close as possible to the original text, in terms of appearance.
The allegations came shortly after the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) opened bids for the supply and delivery of “Primary and Secondary Textbooks” for the Ministry.

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