Cuffie: MS Office for State staff

The normal price is US$399. He announced this on Monday at a signing ceremony at his Ministry for the three-year deal to licence Microsoft programmes to the Public Service. The deal gives the Public Service a 20 percent discount on the true cost of the programmes, guarantees no cost-hikes in three years, and gives access to free upgrades.

Cuffie said the pricefreeze will save the Government $25 million per year, over the three years. The Home Use Programme of the MEA will let staff improve their personal skills and those of their families, and their online security.

Cuffie also said the Government itself will gain by some 9,390 of its staff accessing free online training for applications such as MS Word, MS Excel and MS Powerpoint. Further, some 7,781 workers will be able to access Windows Server, SQL Server and Sharepoint Server, among others.

Cuffie said the initiative will remedy the Public Service’s obstacles to progress posed by a legal of paper- based processes, although he lamented the show progress of legislative reform to digitise and virtualise all of this information.

Despite now being the time of the ‘e-generation’, he said the Public Sector remains challenged in infusing ICT into its service delivery.