The headline in today's Fiji Sun tries to impute improper motives and unethical practices where in fact there is none. Apart from the information submitted to the media during the press conference on Thursday (4/3), the following other information are submitted for public information:

• The initial bid by the American based company is indeed higher than that of Krishna Sami's company DATEC but certainly not to the extent reported in the Fiji Sun.

• One of the reasons why the NLTB Board only gave an approval in principle, was for Management to go back and re-negotiate the price with the successful bidder. This has now been done and as the result of further discussions and other developments, the total cost to NLTB would ultimately be comparable to the bid by DATEC.

• Of the 4 shortlisted bidders, 3 were from local companies. If price were the only consideration, then DATEC's bid would not have been successful either as the 2 other bids from local indigenous owned companies were much more competitive than that from Mr Sami's DATEC.

• One of the other unsuccessful bidders Software Factory Ltd, has written to us congratulating us on our choice even though their bid was unsuccessful. A copy of their letter is attached for information. This was the same company that we had used to develop an IT Strategic Plan for NLTB. This plan directly led to the development of the IT Roadmap that we are currently following.

• As mentioned in the press conference, price was not the only consideration, as the implementation of a fully integrated system was the primary consideration. The 4 companies that were invited to bid were presented with a comprehensive Requirement Specification. When all the bids were considered, there was never a doubt that the SAP solution was by far the best.