The Ministry of Education has stopped the sale of laptops that were imported into the country to boost the One Laptop Per Child Programme (OLPC). According to the coordinator of the programme, Parfait Nkubito, the Ministry moved in to block the auction and is now investigating how the laptops got onto the market. The laptops, he said, were brought into the country by air in 2009. They were part of a consignment shipped by sea the same year, but for the ones that came by air, the Ministry was not notified and they were stored at a warehouse operated by the Rwanda Revenue Authority. About 50 laptops came by air at the time and the Ministry is also looking into why the laptops in question were not shipped with the rest of the consignment. The tax body auctions unclaimed goods after a certain period mainly for not paying taxes, however, government property does not fall into this bracket. We are working with RRA to ascertain how government property was put up for auction, Nkubito added. The laptops were bought by a local business man who scheduled to sell them to the public. Plans are underway to get back the laptops and refund the businessman.
