Actions initiated to ensure effectiveness of CCTV system

This information was communicated by the Prime Minister, Mr Pravind Kumar Jugnauth, today, in the National Assembly, in reply to a Parliamentary Question pertaining to the condition of the CCTV system at the Eastern High Security Prison in Melrose.

At the very outset, Prime Minister Jugnauth highlighted that he was informed by the Commissioner of Prisons that out of the 544 cameras installed at the Eastern High Security Prison, 339 are not operational as at date. He pointed out that the Mauritius Prison Service signed a five-year maintenance contract on 10 February 2016 with Beijing Zhuzong-Hyvec Partners Joint Venture, the Contracting firm, to the tune of Rs 19 million plus vat, as from January 2016 to 31 December 2020. 

Moreover, he pointed out that, as at June 2016, 73 cameras were not operational.  The contractor, who was apprised of the situation, carried out an overall inspection of the CCTV system and reported that the cause of the non-operational cameras was damage to fibre optic cables by rodents and frequent power loss due to some faulty Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS), he added.

Prime Minister Jugnauth further informed the house that the Prisons Department already allocated a contract to Alpha Pest Management to address the issue of rodents, and following a procurement exercise, on 10 January 2018, Powersure Ltd was awarded a contract for the replacement of faulty UPS batteries to be completed by 14 February 2018.  However, it was also noted that 16 UPS were still not working and the resulting situation had an incidence on the functioning of the camera system, he stated.

He also recalled that the original contract value for the CCTV system stood at Rs 29 million while the final cost reached Rs 63.1 million.