SI: Complaint over government purchase of proprietary software
Slovenia's court of Auditors and Slovenia's anti-corruption authority have received an anonymous complaint regarding the government's procuring of proprietary software licences for computer operating systems and office applications, Slovenian media reported last Month.
The complainant, using the pseudonym 'Kranjski Tux', is asking the government's auditors and anti-corruption authority to investigate the ministry's negotiations and licence agreement between the Ministry for Public Administration with Microsoft between 2002 and 2010. According to the complaint these deals are violating procurement rules, ignore basic economic principles and are hindering competition between software suppliers.
The complaint targets confidential framework government licence deals that are renewed every three years, most recently in October 2009 and estimated to be worth some 60 million Euro: "The government assumes there is only a single supplier of products and services in the area of PC operating systems and office applications, both supplied only by Microsoft. The government omits checking if there are alternative products available and fails to invite the competition."
The entire complaint is available on Slovenia's Open Source competence centre and software repository (COKS).
Commenting on the complaint to the Slovenian business news paper Dnevnik, the Ministry for Public Administration said the framework licence deal results in discount prices. No governmental organisation is forced to use the licence contract, the ministry added.
Dnevnik also quotes Igor Šoltes, president of the court of auditors, commenting on the framework procurements. "Ideally these offer government institutions a list of solution providers that they can choose from."
Šoltes added it is too early to tell if the complaint will be considered.
More information:
Dnevnik news item (in Slovenian)
Slovenia Times news item (in Slovenian)
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