Why give schools refurbished laptops when you can afford new ones, Mitra asked

 

Mitra previously defended it’s move to supply Tamil schools 6,000 refurbished laptops at a cost of RM3 million, calling it a good deal. (Facebook pic)

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Indian People’s Party (MIPP) has questioned the purchase of refurbished laptops for Tamil schools by the Malaysian Indian Transformation Unit, saying the unit known as Mitra has enough money to purchase new ones instead.

“(Mitra) allocated RM3 million for the purchase of laptops. There is also a (total) allocation of up to RM7 million for (Indian) MPs.

“Why give MPs more allocations when they are already getting (funds) from the federal government? Those allocations could be used to purchase laptops,” said MIPP deputy president S Subramaniam, adding that he was responding to complaints on social media.

Subramaniam said a new laptop has a maximum warranty of at least three years, whereas a refurbished device only has a maximum of one year.

MIPP deputy president S Subramaniam.

SJK (T) Ladang Emerald parent-teacher association chairman K Thayalan Krisnasamy agreed with Subramaniam, saying the association had already returned all its laptops to Mitra as they were not in working condition.

“They gave us about 50 refurbished laptops. I suggest they give just 10 new laptops. That would do,” he said.

Thayalan also claimed that most Tamil schools were facing similar issues with Mitra-issued refurbished laptops.

“The other schools face similar issues too, and prefer to get brand-new laptops instead of unusable refurbished ones,” he said.

In December, Mitra economy and works director Suresh Ramasamy defended the body’s move to supply to Tamil schools 6,000 refurbished laptops at a cost of RM3 million, calling it a good deal.

He said the RM3 million price tag made it a better deal than the 300,000 tablets purchased at RM1,000 each under an initiative by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission. - FMT