Govt paid $4.3m for covid19 masks

TO combat the covid19 pandemic Government spent over $4 million on locally-made cloth masks, Finance Minister Colm Imbert told the House of Representatives on Friday.

Barataria/San Juan MP Saddam Hosein in a listed question had asked Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh for the names of bidders to the tender issued by Nipdec, last April, to supply masks.

The question was fielded by Imbert who said Government had spent $4.364 million to buy 436,000 masks at a cost a $10 each. He said 103 providers were engaged to supply the masks, including sole traders, micro, small and medium-sized businesses. Imbert said the masks have been widely distributed including to each of Trinidad’s 14 local government corporations.

Hosein, in a separate question, asked what steps have been taken to supply laptops and electronic devices for pupils to learn online.

Education Minister Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly said since March, Government had taken a series of steps. She said 11,295 devices had been allocated to special needs students, plus teachers in primary and secondary schools, since July. She said the ministry has also begun the procurement process for some 28,000 laptops and devices for primary and secondary school students.

Some 50 pledges have been given from private donors to provide devices under the Adopt-A-School project with devices distributed upon arrival in TT, Gadsby-Dolly said.

Some 21,557 devices have been pledged including 10,000 from the Telecommunications Authority of TT (TATT,) and 5,520 have been delivered.

"In total, therefore the Ministry of Education has distributed approximately 17,000 devices in furtherance of online learning, and will in the near future add 36,000 to that figure, for a grand total of approximately 53,000 devices." Asked how many students lacked devices, she said she had to compile those details by also considering how many parents had bought, on top of those supplied by the State and the Adopt-A-School programme.

Planning Minister Camille Robinson-Regis, in reply to a separate question by Mayaro MP Rushton Paray, said TATT manages a $110 million universal service fund to remedy gaps in access to IT and online connectivity. She said in 2021 this fund will be used to supply 10,000 tablets to the Ministry of Education for schools online learning, smart phones to the disabled and supply free connectivity and community IT centres.