The iPad saga continues among the Ugandan Parliamentarians as the legislators are still toiling with the UGX 30 billion acquisition. According to the Observer the ipads are not functioning beyond the confines of the House. The over 375 WIFI/ 3G capable tablets currently work within the confines of the Parliament. MP Kassiano Wadri told the Public Accounts Committee on Monday
“I have got your ipad but I kept it because the MTN line does not measure up,”
In response, Clerk to Parliament Jane Kibirige blamed the service provider.
“We are facing a problem because when we awarded the contract to MTN, we thought they [would] provide the service as we expected, some House activities such as committee and plenary sessions were never meant to be accessible to MPs through the ipads. We wanted MPs to access services wherever they are, but they [MTN] later told us that they [would] be able to provide the services to MPs only within the precincts of Parliament, beyond that … they switched off services on December 31, 2013,”
Are MPs not willing to buy their own internet bundles?
So the big question to ask is what were the limits of MTN services? Are MPs just not willing to invest in their own private work and buy their own internet bundles? Or the service just doesn’t work?
MTN says that the necessary infrastructure had been installed to support this service, although MPs still claim they have not received official communication from the Clerk of Parliament or their IT team to switch on this service to date.
Via: Observer
