GEOTECH Vision Enterprises has rejected statements made in Parliament Tuesday by Technology Minister Fayval Williams about the ongoing contract dispute between the company and the state entity, e-Learning Jamaica.

In a statement yesterday, GeoTech Vision Managing Director Valrie Grant pointed out what she said are inaccuracies and “unfortunate misrepresentations” made by the minister, which could have been avoided if the minister had accepted the company’s appeal for a meeting in August to resolve the issues.

“Our primary concern is the minister’s assertion that there has been no change to the contract,” she stated, pointing out that eLearning Jamaica’s CEO Keith Smith has publicly said the agency changed the contract to remove charging carts and sourced them at a competitive price on the international market.

Minister Williams told the House of Representatives that the estimated date for the deployment of the tablets to schools was January 2010, but that e-Learning had experienced “performance problems” with GeoTech Vision. She was answering questions tabled by Julian Robinson, Opposition spokesman on technology.

She said these included delays in the submission of the US$616,000 performance bond which was originally due by January 4, 2019 but was received on February 7. “The performance bond required further correction and was finally submitted on February 13, 2019,” she remarked.

Williams said GeoTech also continuously shifted the delivery timeline, and that there was an inability to successfully validate sample tablets, as well as a lack of cooperation on the management and resolution of problems with the project.

“The foregoing resulted in a forced delay of the tablet distribution to September 2019 whereas the contract delivery dates for the tablet was initially May 2019. The September 2019 date was subsequently missed due to the non-delivery of the 19,305 tablets which were confirmed in the amended purchase order issued to GeoTech Vision in February 2019,” the technology minister told the House.

The company countered, however, that it was e-Learning’s own adjustments to the contract which caused the delay.

“GeoTech Vision maintains that this, among other changes, compounded by several delays on the part of eLearning Jamaica were in clear breach of contract for the provision of tablets, sync carts and services for the e-Learning’s Tablets in Schools Project, which was entered in on November 23, 2018,” Grant insisted.

The company also alleged that the actions of one officer at e-Learning “caused substantial changes and variations”to the programme, some of which were made unilaterally and without any dialogue with GeoTechVision”. GeoTech said it can prove that these actions caused a delay in the performance of the contract.

Furthermore, GeoTech said the latest change to the contract was received from e-Learning Jamaica on September 13, 2019, one business day before the notice of termination on September 16, 2019.

The company also refuted the minister’s statements that none of the sample tablets worked or met specifications. Grant reiterated that the tablets had passed numerous benchmark tests performed by top experts and exceeded the technical specifications of the contract.

She also pointed out again that the over 19,000 tablets are still warehoused on the island and that the Government has been invited to have the tablets independently tested.

Asked at a press conference called by GeoTech held in October to address the issue, its information communication technologies project manager, Stephen Wedderburn, side-stepped the question of whether the company believes there is another company being positioned for the contract.

“We are not in a position to say anything in relation to that,” he said.

Last week GeoTech indicated that it was in the process of taking e-Learning Jamaica to court over the contract which the agency terminated in September, citing failure to meet the contract conditions.