Many people have been asking Foroyaa whether a public servant could be dismissed for refusing to go and work on a farm owned by high ranking state officials or their institutions.

The Cocaine trial involving twelve non-Gambians on Tuesday failed to proceed at the Banjul Magistrate Court, presided over by Magistrate Hillary Abeke.
Mikalive Abdullah (DDPP) informed the court that the matter was adjourned for plea taking. He submitted that he had informed the court during the last sitting
that they were going to amend the charges proffered against the accused persons.
He added that the state prepared twelve charges ready for filing, but the court registry was not functioning, and it was because of this reason that they were only able to file on Thursday morning.

The operational guidelines settings for early childhood care and development was validated by stakeholders at a day’s workshop at the Regional Education Centre, Kanifing on Thursday 26, August 2010.

The former Gambian Ambassador to France and a former Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mr. William John Joof on Monday pleaded not guilty
to the nine count charges preferred against him.
The former ambassador was arraigned before Magistrate Abeke of the Banjul Magistrate’s Court by prosecutors at the State Law office.

By Bakary Y. Jammeh
The outgoing chairperson of EFA Campaign Network Gambia Chapter, Madam Adelaide Sosseh, recently told her network members that quality education is still a concern despite progress registered towards achieving the goals of education for all by 2015.
Madam Sosseh made this remark recently at the general assembly of the network held at the Paradise suites Hotel.

The criminal trial of Mayombe Samuel, a Cameroonian National who is charged with the murder of one Therese Opons Wodijia proceeded
before Magistrate Emmanuel E.A Amadi at thBanjul High Court with the testimony of the 2nd prosecution witness, Doctor Abdulie Alieu Ceesay.

This meeting that is being organised by the ECOWAS Commission and scheduled to hold on the 31st August , 1st and 2nd September 2010 at the Hotel NGOR DIARAMA in Dakar (Senegal), seeks “greater involvement of the research community in the formulation of ECOWAS programmes, notably the ECOWAS Community Development Programme (CDP) and Regional Research Policy”. The meeting shall bring together about sixty representatives from the universities and research centres, members of research networks and resource persons from the 15 ECOWAS Member States.

Dolly and Laayla are friends since secondary school days. Laayla has the habit of snatching her friends’ boyfriends; she did it to a handful of them. Her philosophy is: “I am beautiful and appealing, I cannot stop their boyfriends falling for me; if they cannot keep their lovers to themselves they should have themselves to blame not me. “Laayla became lonely as all friends abandoned her except Dolly who defy the others and continue to hang out with Laayla “The ‘Jiit’ (Scorpion) will not spare her; she is waiting for the right opportunity to strike!” Are the friends right or wrong?” Read to find out.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
and
Ministry of Information and Communication Infrastructure

Consultancy Announcement

Job title: Consultancy for the Design & Implementation of E-Government Data Center Duration: 1 month
Application Deadline: Friday 3rd September 2010
Terms of Reference
As the lead agency of the e-Government programme in the country, the Ministry of Information and Communication Infrastructure (MOICI) implemented several initiatives including the e-Readiness Assessment for the Government Sector, Development of ICT4D Implementation Plans, Government E-Mail System, Design and Development of Government Web Portal project including the Ministries Website. At present, the Government Web Portal and the Ministries’ website as well as the government e-Mail system are manage by MOICI and hosted by GAMTEL’s Server.
The Government under the leadership of MOICI has secured funding from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for the establishment of a government data centre to support the e-Government strategy. The data centre will serve as the central data processing center networking all government computer systems with the aim of sharing resources and information. UNDP under the ‘Support to the National E-Government Strategy Project”, have assisted government in the procurement of basic hardware (such as: servers, routers, switches, peripherals) and software (such Windows Server 2003, MS Share Point, MS Exchange, etc.) other materials needed for the establishment of e-Government Data Center as well as upgrading of MOICI’s Local Area Network (LAN).
The consultancy is aim to oversee the installation and configuration of the data centre in accordance with industry best standards and practices, to support network traffic, authentication and authorization. The platform will facilitate the connectivity between government Ministries and institutions. The proposed data centre will have the scalability to support future government communication initiatives including data, voice and video.
II. Duties and Responsibilities:
1. Study and evaluate the e-Government Data Center environment including the computing environment of the Ministries and other government agencies that will be interconnected to it.
2. Design a network topology/architecture and present it to the Project Steering Committee for approval
3. Install and configure servers including network operating systems, some application packages and basic network services but not limited to, such as: DHCP Server, DNS Server, File Server, E-Mail Server, Web Server and Back-up Server
4. Install routers, firewalls, switches, etc, to meet the best standards and security requirements
5. Conduct test runs and documentation.
6. Conduct actual hands-on training to e-Gov data center technical staff
7. Submit necessary documentations to MOICI before the end of the contract.
8. Provide technical support during warranty period of six (6) months.
III. Expected Outputs:
The following outputs will be produced by the expert:
1. Install and configure a scable forest and domain controllers to support government institutions and departments.
2. Install and configure secure DNS environment to support the government infrastructure.
3. Install and configure virtual private network from the various institutions to the data centre to facilitate secure communication using the WAN links.
4. Install and Configure software and hardware firewall including security policies to ensuring secured communication between the nodes and ensure data integrity.
5. Network topology and architectural design and schema.
6. Documentations and report
7. Actual hands-on training for e-Government Data Center technical staff
IV. Qualifications:
- A local registered IT Company with vast computer networking experience including LAN, WAN, VPN and Network Security
- At least two (3) similar projects successfully completed will be an advantage.
- Sufficient technical staff to support the project within its warranty period
SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY:
The Project Steering Committee will be directly responsible for the supervision and coordination of the Contractor. It will ensure that all the outputs required from the Contractor are timely and efficiently delivered with satisfactory quality.
SUBMISSION OF APPLICATION
Interested contractors shall submit one original copy of the proposal, together with two duplicate copies of the original. Decisions on award of the contract will be taken based on the written proposal. In the event of any discrepancy between the original and the duplicate copies thereof, the information contained in the original will be accepted valid and shall prevail over any statement contained in the duplicate copies. The proposal shall contain a one-page cover letter explaining their interest and capacity to undertake the study. They should also provide a concept paper on the requirements/outputs identified above including their company profile. Submission of the requested information shall be made to UNDP Country Office through the following email address: registry.gm@undp.org
Or to the postal address given below:
Submission of applications
Applications should be submitted to:
The Resident Representative
UNDP The Gambia
5, Kofi Annan Street
P.O. Box 553
Cape Point, Banjul
Or through email: registry.gm@undp.org, indicating “Consultancy for the Design & Implementation of E-Government Data Center”” in the subject field.
The closing date for applications is Friday 3rd September 2010. Any applications received after this date will not be given consideration. Only short-listed candidates whose applications respond to the above criteria will be contacted for an interview. - o –

INVITATION TO TENDER

The UNDP Office in The Gambia located at 5 Kofi Annan Street, Cape invites competent firms with solid experience to submit their proposal for the Formulation of a Proposal on E-Government of The Gambia.

TENDER DOCUMENTS
Proposal documents are available from the UNDP offices from Tuesday, 31st August 2010.

PRE-BID SUBMISSION MEETING
For further details of the task to enhance the quality of the offers including design specifications, etc, UNDP office invites offerors for a pre-bid submission meeting at the Ministry of Information and Communication Infrastructure on Tuesday, 31st August 2010 at 10.30 a.m.
Please contact Mr. Edgardo Villena on telephone (+220) 7487096 for further details of the meeting.

CLOSING DATE
The closing date for the submission of proposals is on Monday, 13th September 2010 at 12 noon.

Proposals must be submitted to:
UNDP Office
5 Kofi Annan Street
Cape Point, Bakau
REF: FORMULATION OF A PROJECT PROPOSAL
ON E-GOVERNMENT OF THE GAMBIA
For Attention: Resident Representative

No late submissions will be accepted

Enquiries and contact information
The Gambia
Ms. Binta Sanneh or Ms. Sainabou Jaye on (+220) 4494762