Ministry of Public Telecommunications’ $2.3B estimates approved
GINA, GUYANA, Tuesday, December 20, 2016
Minister of Public Telecommunications, Catherine Hughes
A total of$2.3B for the Ministry of Public Telecommunications’ Capital and Current expenditures were considered and approved in the Committee of Supply, today.
The allocated sum will be utilised as follows:
- $1.5B for Current Expenditure
- $252M for Programme Policy Development and Administration – Current Expenditure
- $444M for Programme Policy Development and Administration – Capital Expenditure
- $750,000 for Policy Development and Administration
- $2.9M for Industry Innovations- Capital Expenditure
- $38.5M for Industry Innovations- Current Expenditure
Additionally,
- $73M was approved for CCTV cameras
- $25M for software for the Ministry
- Government will purchase 1 Gigabit per second from GTT at the cost of US$145 per MB,
- $40.2M will fund the development of an electronic document management system and
- $50M will be utilised to construct an E-Government network
Minister of Public Telecommunications, Catherine Hughes defended and justified the allocations.
Minister Hughes in responding to a question from Opposition Member of Parliament, Juan Edghill, who asked from where the Ministry will be sourcing the Broadband Service, replied that the Guyana Telephone & Telegraph (GTT) is the only company that provides broadband internet services.
The Public Telecommunications Minister said the year 2017 will be one of transformation for Guyana in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector.
By: Gabreila Patram