When Prof. Attahiru Jega was appointed the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in July, 2010 by President Ebele Goodluck Jonathan, Nigerians had great hopes for free, fair and credible elections. Whether or not this was attained through Jega's INEC is a matter for another day's discussion. However, It is clear that Nigeria had the most expensive elections ever in her history, deploying technology which had been used before in previous elections but cost much less. Bu August 2010, Prof. Jega and his team came up with a budget for the conduct of just one of the various exercises leading up to the elections namely: Voters' Registration Exercise whose budget value was revised several times. In the end, the INEC requested for =N=74bn to conduct a successful exercise. The Presidency in it's own wisdom pegged it at =N=90bn which amount was presented to the National Assembly for approval. Most of the NASS members in both chambers raised a eye-brow about the credibility of the budget and questioned the rationale for such stupendous amount for just one of the various exercises leading up to the elections. However, a dummy was sold to the NASS by it's leadership claiming that they would not want to be held responsible for Jega's inability to deliver credible, free and fair elections, hence the need to approve the monies he had requested through the presidency. This is even more so as the polity was already heated up with the issue of zoning and the proponents and opponents were at daggers drawn.
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:27:19 PM
In the heat of all the confusion and also in view of the much touted integrity of Prof. Attahiru Jega, many Nigerians including civil society groups (turned overnight INEC consultants and contractors) swallowed line, hook and sinker information loaded with calculated mischief and misinformation from the INEC. In the end, having held the nation by it's balls, the NASS approved the sum of =N=87.7bn for the exercise reluctantly. This discussion aims at x-raying the INEC budget for the Voters' Registration Exercise, INEC's pricing in the context of prevailing prices for even better products, the INEC specifications given to the contractors based on which they presented their quatations, intrigues and clear attempts to rip the nation off of huge amounts of money as well as the many lies the INEC told the NASS based on which the budget was finally approved. Let me state clearly that Nigeria and Nigeria and Nigerians were deceived and duped by agents of the Presidency, the NASS leadership with Prof. Jega as the arrowhead. We start with the budget document.
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:27:50 PM
But first, certain critical questions come to mind. On what basis did INEC derive it's benchmark for correct pricing? Jega had also claimed that the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) that were chosen were among the first 10 in the world. Is that true? On what basis did Prof. Jega who had only just resumed in July prepare such a stupendous budget whose value changed severally until the Presidency deemed it right in it's own wisdom to further inflate the amount INEC requested by an additional =N=16bn? When it was discovered that one of the OEM's supposedly made a mistake in it's pricing as a result of which the bid process was repeated causing further delays, why were the other vendors who did not complain allowed to review their prices upwards? What did they quote for before then and what were they going to supply with that initial amount? Were they planning to short change the INEC and Nigeria? If so, why were they not blacklisted? Why were they given a second chance to bid for the supply of the DDCMs? The answers will be clear to you all shortly.
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:28:35 PM
First, the budget, INEC's Request for Quaotation I and 2, INEC's beautiful literary prosaic account of how the monies were spent embellished with little substance but filled with outright lies and carefully chosen words to deceive the public will be presented to you all now in the order in which I have mentioned them.
Here is a break down of the budget: 1. N4 billion for vehicles
2. N3 billion for collapsible ballot boxes
3. N5.4 billion for the review of the voter register
4. N10.8 billion for operations (personnel cost requirements and cost for registration of voters nationwide)
5. N222 million for hotel accommodation for state INEC commissioners
6. N3.66 billion for logistics and transport
7. N502.5 million for training of staff for voter registration
8. N10.3 million for printing of voter register
9. N5.4 billion to clean up the electronic voter register after election
10. N155.5 million for Servicom
11. N64.78 million for electoral hazards allowance
12. N222 million for voter education, display of voter register across the 774 Local Government Areas
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:29:01 PM
When the budget was approved, this is what the Senate President, David Mark said: ""We have expressed our reservations. In spite of the reservations, we don't want to give INEC or anybody an excuse for not conducting a credible election next year... [w]e have gone the extra mile to do this so that INEC can deliver credible election in 2011 that will meet international standards."
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:30:57 PM
In approving this budget, the NASS failed to perform due diligence and played on stupid emotions despite ample evidence so much was wrong in approving the theft and mismanagement of the nation's scarce resources. Remember also that in order to get these monies through, the INEC had claimed that each DDC Machine would be accompanied with a power generating set and that the registration exercise would be online. Let's take the items one by one.
The INEC had budgeted =N=3bn for collapsible Ballot Boxes. Have you seen what a Collapsible Ballot box looks like? What we got were ordinary toughened polythene bags for Collapsible Ballot Boxes and yet we spent =N=3bn to acquire one or two, at most, for each of the 120,000 polling units the INEC had earmarked in the country. How much is each of those bag's worth?
What we got as Collapsible Ballot Boxes were Provisional ballot bags which cost less than 15% the cost of a collapsible Ballot Box.
Let's assume that each polling unit had 2 bags, therefore 120,000 polling units would have 240,000 bags. Divide that into =N=3bn and each toughened nylon provisional bag cost =N=12,500 by INEC's budget.
The sort that the INEC bought that were displayed each each polling unit can be produced even locally and costs far more less.
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:32:32 PM
Item 2: =N=5.4bn was approved for the review of Voters' Register. what register? Iwu's register? It must be. It couldn't have been the new register Jega wanted to use the money for as you cannot review what does not exist. When did this review take place? Who were the consultants? What was the result of the review exercise? Where did =N=5.4bn go to?
Item 3: N10.8 billion for operations (personnel cost requirements and cost for registration of voters nationwide). this item clearly show that the cost of conducting the actual voter's registration exercise was separated from the cost of conducting the fresh exercise, further confirming that item 2 in the budget was earmarked for the review of Iwu's voters' Register.
What was the essence of the review of Iwu's voters' Register when you bought new machines to conduct a fresh exercise?
Still on item 3: Tbhe budget figure for this item suggests clearly that the direct cost of the actual exercise was barely =N=10.8bn. how was this figure arrived at? does it include the DDCMs? After examining the budget, we shall examine the price benchmark for the DDCMs next and you will get my drift. So as not to make things clumsy, I will concentrate on the budget and bring it to a conclusion first before focusing on the value of the contract for the DDCMs.
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:32:51 PM
Item 5: N222 million for hotel accommodation for state INEC commissioners. How? Are the State INEC Commissioners not given accommodation in the states they supervise? Or is the =N=222m shrouded in such heading to cover up the fact that it was personal 'settlement' for each State INEC Commissioner? 36 States INEC Commisiioners plus the FCT divided into =N=222m amounts to =N=6,166, 667 per commissioner. What kind of hotel did they stay in? what and what did they eat that would amount to that even if they each stayed in those hotels for more that a month?
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:33:44 PM
Item 6: =N=3.66bn for logistics and transport: They divided themselves into teams and shared monies for trips to foreing countries where the DDCMs were being produced to supposedly inspect their factories and their production capacity when they did not have the wherewithal to understand and comprehend those capacities and the issues bordering around it. They also went to inspect production when they do not even know the ABC's of production and so could not make intelligent deductions about the quality of equipment churned out as well as the rudiments of quality control. They came back having frittered away and laundered their shares of the stolen monies in foreign accounts and could not even detect that the machines would not arrive as scheduled. The production capacities of OEMs are known world wide and you do not need a foreign trip to verify them. Why did all the key officials of the INEC have to embark on the trip to various countries? It was a huge waste of national resources. those monies spent on those trips must be accounted for. How many domestic trips did they embark on to warrant such an unholy expenditure? did they embark on the journeys with Spacecrafts? Yes, Jega flew to Delta and a few places on Helicopter yet he did not detect electoral malpractices in the Delta Gubernatorial Rerun Exercise.
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:34:01 PM
Item 7: N502.5 million for training of staff for voter registration. this is the most curious part of the whole budget. Training only began a few weeks to the commencement of the Voters' Registration Exercise. It's on record that no training manuals were produced, there were no projectors, the Youth Corp members were not housed in choice hotels and yet they were not properly trained resulting in part of the problems witnessed initially in the conduct of the exercise nationwide. Can Jega tell us what happened to that money? who were the trainers? How much were they paid? Why wre there no training materials?
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:34:25 PM
ITem: =N=10.3 m for printing of Voters' Register. What kind of materials were used in the printing? Were they gold paper or were they made of precious stones? How many pages did the register contain? and yet, we spent so much to produce a few copies of a very useless and fraud-prone document with clearly falsified figures for each state of the federation and yet also, many voters could not find their names on the register. that is the subject for another day. Who were the contractors and how much were they paid and for what?
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:35:49 PM
Now this is the part that makes me cry for my fatherland and marvel at the stupidity of the public and the Jega defenders. Item 9: N5.4 billion to clean up the electronic voter register after election. What are they cleaning up after the election? Is this an advance admittance that we went to the polls with a useless document with concocted figures? What does it take to clean up the register? does Jega intend for Nigerians to queue again? If not, how does he intend to detect who should be in the register and who should not? Does he and his men know every Nigerian by heart? Let's be fair and assume that he would use the corrections illegally done at the polling units during the elections as a basis for the corrections, how many computers and personnel does he need to deploy for this purpose? the whole nation? Waht justification, therefore, is there for this demonic amount budgeted for a sham exercise that is not even in the INEC laid out plan?
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:36:10 PM
Item 11: N64.78 million for electoral hazards allowance. This is plausible in view of the hazards the electoral officers are exposed to. But how much of this allowance was given to the Youth Corps members who bore the brunt of misgivings about the credibility of the elections?
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:36:32 PM
Item 12: N222 million for voter education, display of voter register across the 774 Local Government Areas. Can any Nigerian identify any voter education effort by the INEC in his/her local government during the exercise including Voters' Registration and the actual elections? What does it take to print out voters' register for each state for each of the centres other than the computer printers attached to the DDC Machines? Or was it a printing press that did it? If so, should it not even be far cheaper? What on earth did Jega do with =N=222m budgeted for this item.
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:36:49 PM
In spite of all these huge amounts, Jega still requested for another =N=6bn to extend the exercise by one week. We shall examine that aspect much later. Did you notice that there was no specific mention of the DDCMs in the budget? Or was it not just a critical factor to place it in the budget? What were the DDCMs purchased for? What were the components? Who are the manufacturers selected? how competitive were their prices? Did the INEC take advantage of the economy of scale in the purchase decision? What do those products sell for ordinarily? What were the specifications?
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:38:30 PM
First, let's examine the first bidding process.
“ In the spirit of accountability, INEC rejected the demand for price variation demanded by manufacturers with the best quoted price for the entire procurement which pleaded it under quoted on the printer requested by the commission.” - Dr Chris Iyimoga, Supervising National Commissioner in the FCT
This is a blattant lie as the INEC had gone ahead approve $1443 over an above the initial $874 approved using the so-called BPP advise as an alibi. This an upward variation by a whooping $549.
JEGA and his team should give us fact and stop misleading the public with spurious information.
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:39:05 PM
Voters’ registration: BPP completes due diligence on INEC’s DDC contractors
...Stage set for contract signing
From FRANCIS AWOWOLE-BROWNE, Abuja
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Photo: Sun News publishing
More Stories on This Section
The Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) may have concluded its due diligence on the five firms recommended by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the manufacturing and supply of the biometric Direct Data Capture machine.
This is even as the Commission has compiled the complaints of its officers who conducted the mock voters’ registration last week for the purpose of hinting the manufacturers of the devices for adjustment before the consignments are brought into the country.
The conclusion of work by the BPP, Daily Sun learnt, has set the stage for the signing of the contract papers by the two parties, the INEC and the representatives of three of the manufacturers approved by the BPP.
Sources revealed to Daily Sun that an indigenous Lagos-based ICT firm, Zinox, has been approved to provide local content requirement for the contract offer. However, it could not be ascertained as at press time the other two firms which would also participate in the deal, though it had been speculated that Avante Technologies and Haier Electrical Appliances made the list.
It was gathered that the contract award papers would be signed latest by Friday but could be postponed to early next week if any of the three manufacturers could not make it on time for the signing ceremony.
Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Kayode Idowu, confirmed to Daily Sun that all was almost set for the signing of the contract papers, saying the Commission had received positive development from the BPP.
He explained that the contract would possibly be signed by this weekend since all arrangements had almost been concluded.
In order not to be caught off guard, sources disclosed further that it was not until the machines arrived, tested and certified ready before the INEC would announce a date for the voters’ registration in the hope that National Assembly would have completed work on the amendment of the Constitution and the Electoral Act.
INEC officers who participated had hectic time coping with the machines in the first two days of the three-day exercise and at a time had to go back to the ICT Department of the Commission for further training on how to handle the machines.
When asked to comment on the observation of the Commission on the mock exercise, the CPS was not forthcoming saying he was yet to get the official observation on the exercise but that by and large all was well and the Commission was on course.
Observers were of the opinion that only computer literate youth corps members should be engaged for the exercise as it was believed that having had basic knowledge about the use of computer they would easily key into the training and deliver better and faster than those who had little or no training at all in their course of study.
INEC would require 132,000 units of the DDC machines in about 120,000 polling units in the 774 local governments across the federation.
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:41:24 PM
INEC shortlists three firms for DDC machines
By Olusola Fabiyi, Fidelis Soriwei and John Alechenu, Abuja
Saturday, 23 Oct 2010
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Attahiru Jega
The Independent National Electoral Commission has shortlisted three companies for the award of contracts for the supply of 132, 000 units of Direct Data Capturing Machines, which are to be used to register voters for the 2011 general elections.
Those shortlisted are Zinox Technology, Avante and Haier Electrical Appliances Technology. SATURDAY PUNCH gathered on Friday in Abuja that these three companies were chosen from the list of about 12 companies that submitted bids for the job.
However, the Federal Executive Council is expected to ratify the commission’s decision at its meeting next Wednesday.
If the commission’s decision is ratified, Zinox will be expected to supply 80,000 units of the machines, a departure from the 42,000 units initially offered the company.
Avante would supply 22,000, while Haier, which was originally asked to supply 90,000 machines, would now supply only 30,000.
The commission has now fixed the cost of each machine at $1443, which is an increase on the $874 earlier agreed with the contractors.
It was learnt that the Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, was forced to drop his earlier decision to call for fresh bids for the supply of the machines because of the intervention of the Bureau for Public Procurement that a revalidation of the earlier process put in place for the supply of the machines was the most viable option open to the commission.
Investigation showed that Jega and his team in INEC had approached the BPP for advice on the circumstances that led to the halting of the supply of the machines penultimate week.
A source, who spoke to one of our correspondents on the condition of anonymity, said that INEC wanted the BPP to find out if the recorded under-quoting by one of the firms awarded the contract was a genuine mistake or not.
When our correspondents contacted the Chief Press Secretary to the chairman of INEC, Mr. Kayode Idowu, he said that a process of revalidation, was almost concluded.
Idowu said, “The process for revalidation has been concluded.”
SATURDAY PUNCH gathered that INEC was busy mapping out ways to prevent its members of staff from being compromised by desperate politicians during the 2011 elections.
As part of the efforts to address the problem, Jega has commenced the enforcement of the 60 per cent allocation of the funds accruable to the commission to the various state offices to create more funds for their operations.
This is different from what was obtainable under Prof. Maurice Iwu’s INEC, where resources allocated to INEC were shared at a ratio of 60 to 40 per cent in favour of the national headquarters.
Idowu said, “Before, the funds that came to INEC used to be shared on the basis of 60 per cent for the national office and 40 per cent across states.
“But when this commission came in, it said no, the national office will keep 40 per cent, let 60 per cent go to the states so that they have more funding to ensure that they are not lured by funds from politicians.
“It is not as if it is adequate to solve the problems, but the idea is to make sure that within available resources, let more funds be made available to insulate the structure of the commission from political interests.”
On the commission’s plan to increase the salaries of electoral officers across the country, Idowu said that the Establishment Committee headed by a national commissioner, Mr. Iremiren, was working on the need to increase the remuneration of not only the electoral officers, but also the entire members of staff.
However, he did not say when the planned increment would take effect, and the percentage of increase being planned for the workers of the commission, and the financial implication of such a development on the commission’s purse.
He said that the commission was committed to the enforcement of a code of ethics for its members of staff and had commenced training on the code of ethics designed to “prevent or to neutralise attempts to pervert the system.”
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:41:54 PM
These guys always know how to find a way to do what they originally intend to do. How can BPP verify that Haier made a mistake in submitting a document as important as a bid document? What shall we not see and hear in this country. Nigeria, your money is gone. What is the '60 per cent allocation of the funds accruable to the commission to the various state offices to create more funds for their operations'? What a country! The PUNCH is now the official public relations unit of the INEC. Nothing is impossible in Naija! It appears that frequent fraternization with the INEC has begun to rob off on the reporter who has abandoned investigative journalism for financial inducement and so he reports any rubbish he's given.
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:43:11 PM
It was obvious that the call for fresh bids was only a decoy. We were not deceived.
?'The commission has now fixed the cost of each machine at $1443, which is an increase on the $874 earlier agreed with the contractors.' that is a difference of $569. In essence, the initial offer was =N=135,470.00 per unit. Now it's =N=223,665.00 per unit and a difference of =N=88,195.00. There is also an upward shift from 132,000 units originally to 152,000 units. Multiply the initial 132,000 units of DDC machines by the initial agreed contract sum of $874 (=N=135,470.00) which amounts to $115,368,000.00 (=N=17,882,044,000.00). Now the value for the contract is 152,000 units multiplied by $1443 (=N=223,665.00). That amounts to $219,336,000.00 (=N=33,997,080,000.00). Now there's a whooping difference of $103,968,000.00 (=N=16,115,036,000.00).
Examine these yourself and you'll see the picture of what I had said earlier about this.
First, does JEGA need more equipment given the time extension necessitating an upward shift from the initial 132,000 units agreed for supply to 152,000 units now to be supplied at a higher cost when the initial amount would have sufficed?
As at the time the monies were approved, it was for 220,000 units. In essence, after collecting =N=87.7bn, JEGA and GEJA suddenly realized the INEC no longer needed 220,000 units of DDC machines despite the urgency they had premised the stampeding for the approval by the National Assembly on and that's a difference of 88,000 units initially and now 68,000 units.
In essence, out of =N=87,700,000,000.00 earmarked for the voters' registration exercise, the INEC is procuring the equipment now for $219,336,000.00 (=N=33,997,080,000.00) leaving a difference of =N=53,702,920,000.00.
The truth is that INEC has gone through the back-door in collusion with the presidency through the BPP to award more of that money fraudulently to the DDC machines manufacturers who hold the stolen part of the monies in trust for GEJA and JEGA and other key officials.
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:43:47 PM
What is left to be seen is how GEJA and JEGA intend to spirit away the balance of =N=53,702,920,000.00 as usual through official explanations soon by surreptitiously upping the amounts for the other items the monies are meant for. We are watching. It's quite an interesting thing to see how these guys efficiently loot our treasury while deficiently delivering the goods or while they render poor services to the people in the end.
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:44:06 PM
In the INEC Revalidation Request for Quotation INEC-2010-VR-RFQ002A published by the INEC on October 4 2010, the following were clearly stated by the INEC as the goals for acquiring the DDCMs: 1. Reduce registration time to a minimum (Fast processor)
2. Reduce errors in data capture (Large keyboard, Visible Display)
3. Permit operation in weather of all kinds (Weatherproof) and at high ambient temperatures
4. Permit operations in various lighting conditions including bright sunlight and low light conditions
5. Easily transportable
6. Physically rugged and will not be damaged by rough handling, or drops
7. Electronically robust and will not be damaged by uncertain or variable power conditions
8. Self contained with minimal setup or technical know how required to operate and install
9. Identifiable as an authentic INEC DDC
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:47:50 PM
Elsewhere in the document, the INEC clearly stated it intended to achieve a maximum of 7 minutes per voter during the registration exercise.
ach polling unit shall be equipped with a direct data capture system (DDC).
The DDC shall consist of the following components:
1. Laptop Computer pre-installed with DDC Software
2. 4 Megapixel USB Camera
3. USB Fingerprint Scanner
4. USB connected Printer
5. Portable Power Supply with 2 X 3-Pin British sockets
6. Appropriate quantity of consumables (Paper, Printer Ink)
7. External Hard Disk
8. Carrying Case (for equipment and consumables)
9. Ancillary Items (Scissors, Software CD, Cleaning Cloth, White Cloth
Backdrop)
Further requirements are as follows:
1. All components of the DDC shall bear an indelible, prominently displayed
marking indicating that it belongs to the Independent National Electoral
Commission
2. The carrying case shall contain all DDC components in a secure, transportable manner - preferably using dense foam slots for each component.
3. Each DDC shall be equipped with 2 External Hard drives which will provide
immediate backup and a medium for data transport
4. Each DDC inverter/powerpack shall have 2 batteries, one will be charging
while the other is in use. Each to be used on alternate days.
5. The DDC enclosure shall include a space for the storage of consumable
materials to be used in the voter registration
6. The supplier shall pre-install the custom DDC Software on the laptops
prior to shipment. INEC shall supply a copy of the software and operating
system for mastering and pre-installation on all Laptops.
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:50:25 PM
Please, note that the specification is for a basic laptop without integrated camera and fingerprint scanner. Note also the erroneous inclusion as part of the specification Gigabit Ethernet in the statement 10/100GB NIC. That was clearly an error in the specification showing ignorance. Gigabit Ethernet specification is 10/100/1000 mbps as distict from 10/100 mbps which most laptops and desktops come bundled with.
Note also in the entire specification, no mention is made of GPS tracking device.
The most expensive laptops in nigeria are HP laptops and so we shall use the pricing for basic HP laptops as a benchmark for the costing. We'll also use the price of basic HP Deskjet Printer and DigitalPersona Fingerprint scanner as benchmark to arrive at the actual cost of each DDCM.
We'll use an HP Pavilion g6t series, a much newer laptop with higher specifications including camera, Wireless LAN, Intel(R) Pentium(R) Dual Core Processor P6200 (2.13 GHz, 3MB L3 Cache), 4GB RAM, 320GB Hard Disk, 6-cell battery with up to 4.25 hours battery life. That laptop currently goes for just $429.99. Please, note that Avante Technologies products, Zinox products and Haier products are no where near HP in terms of standard, quality, acceptability, pricing and ruggedness.
Intially, I had noticed some strange fingerprint scanners initially deployed by the INEC when the exercise began supposedly produced by Zinox. Until the elections, Zinox was not known to produce fingerprint scanners at all neither did they have any such scanner installed in any location on planet earth. When the problem of fingerprint capture became pronounced and the public was fed with blatant and highly ridiculous lies from deep inside the bowels of hell, claiming that the scanners could not capture the fingerprints of old citizens and retired military officers and also that people had to wash their hands with soap and water and wipe with methylated spirit before attempting a scan (which I vehemently opposed on this forum) and that the problem had to do with the fact that the scanners were set to high precision from the factory and that they had to be lowered to medium precision (which I also vehemently opposed as that would degrade naturally the quality of thew fingerprint image obtained and consequently would have adverse effect on the matching process to detect fraud also in this forum), the scnners were surreptitiously rep[laced with DigitalPersona Scanners.
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:51:32 PM
Specifically, the URU4500 DigitalPersona Scanners from Guandong China were the replacement. This scanner goes for about $123.20.
A 4 megapixel WebCAM as INEC specified goes for an average price of $2.97. while a 500GB USB External Hard Drive goes for an average price of $40. While a 500VA Inverter/Charger goes for about $30 averagely. While a 12V Absorbed Glass Mat (AGM) battery goes for an average price of $40 x 2 amounting to $80 per DDCM.
Put it all together, each DDCM core components cost just about $676.16. How much is the case?
Let's find out.
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:54:08 PM
An average market value for rugged equipment casing is just about $10. Add that to the total figure above and you'll get just a paltry $686.16 for each DDC Machine. That is the actual cost if you are buying one unit each. However, if you were buying in bulk as the INEC did, you are entitled to massive bulk discounts which the INEC officials are deliberately silent about. In essence, owing to bulk purchase, each DDCM should cost less than $676.16.
Post Merge: May 08, 2011, 09:55:02 PM
In essence, the total price for 132,000 DDCMs should be =N=101,424 against the INEC approved $1443 (=N=223,665.00) per DDCM, a whooping difference of about $766.84 (=N=115,026) per machine. Looking at it from the angle of the total value, all the DDCMs cost $89,253,120 (=N=13,387,968,000) as against INEC approved $190,476,000 (=N=28,571,400,000) with a huge difference of $101,222,880 (=N=15,183,432,000). I used a conservative exchange rate of =N=150:$1 and we know government spends much less. Duties are definitely waived for the vendors as the items are Federal Government property. Cost of freight is also not included in the INEC Request for Quotation from the vendors so the cost was defrayed by the Federal Government through the INEC.
We shall continue with this tomorrow.
