Now, one of the government's main claims is that the bids were sealed and password protected in a process singularly led by CITO, GOB's Central information and technology office.
The release says "At 2:30 p.m. on June 18, representatives from BTL, Smart and Inova Solutions, in the presence of Ian Smith, CITO's chief information officer, and Artemio Osorio, Ministry of Finance's procurement director, opened the bids via password."
But the UDP says there are just too many possible conflicts of interest to believe this:
Hon. Patrick Faber, Leader of the Opposition
"We are told by the government's press release and by this document that in fact the deadline for submission was 18th June 2021 and that the bids were password protected. We have some concerns about that, because of course we know that in fact Smart Speednet is owned by the prime minister's family and some would go further to say the prime minister himself, I am not going to venture there. But we also know as well that the chief executive officer in the office of the prime minister who would have been overseeing all of this is none other than the former CEO of Smart."
