Hello As in Hungary and India, the Tunisian government had signed a deal with Microsoft for licensing Windows and MS Office for the government, all state offices, universities and schools. I think it's a world wide action taken by Microsoft :/
2009/1/19 Jan Claeys <[email protected]>: > Op zondag 18-01-2009 om 00:08 uur [tijdzone +0100], schreef Szilveszter > Farkas: >> Please let me introduce you the situation in Hungary. Last year the >> government signed a 4-year, 25 + 10 billion HUF (more than 165M USD) >> deal with Microsoft for licensing proprietary software covering the >> government, all state offices, universities, schools, students and >> teachers (yes, it covers almost the whole nation). This deal got some >> attention by the international media, but only because of "the egging >> of Steve Ballmer" at a Hungarian university: >> http://www.google.com/search?q=egg%20Ballmer >> >> The deal was brought to justice by the Hungarian "Economy Competition >> Office" because the exact wording of the tender (that was won by >> Microsoft and its retailers) said: "Microsoft or equal software" - it >> goes against any common sense (and I'm pretty sure even some laws) to >> name a company in a tender by the government. But the court said it >> was okay. >> >> Now, a few days ago another tender of the same value (25 billion HUF, >> around 120M USD) was announced, and we were not surprised to see the >> exact same wording like last year. >> >> So a bunch of people and businesses, who are involved with FLOSS in >> Hungary, plan to write an open letter to the prime minister >> questioning him about the situation. Is it okay for a LoCo to sign a >> letter like this? Or we should rather keep working, and avoid any >> political issues? > > At least the individual members could sign it, and IMO if everybody > agrees, the LoCoTeam could sign it too. > >> I really hope you could help us with some ideas about the situation... >> We're a bit desperate, because we see other European governments >> switching to FLOSS solutions, and ours locking itself into the >> proprietary world even more. > > As Hungary is a member of the EU, they have to follow the EU rules, so > you should also contact Neelie Kroes[1] who works on the MS antitrust > case and whoever is in charge for fair competition for government > contracts (internal market, it seems[2]). > > Of course, having questions asked about this in the EP might be good > too. > > > Some relevant parts from Directive 2004/18/EC [3]: > > * "(8) Before launching a procedure for the award of a contract, > contracting authorities may, using a technical dialogue, seek or > accept advice which may be used in the preparation of the > specifications provided, however, that such advice does not have > the effect of precluding competition." > * "(29) The technical specifications drawn up by public purchasers > need to allow public procurement to be opened up to competition. > To this end, it must be possible to submit tenders which reflect > the diversity of technical solutions. Accordingly, it must be > possible to draw up the technical specifications in terms of > functional performance and requirements, and, where reference is > made to the European standard or, in the absence thereof, to the > national standard, tenders based on equivalent arrangements must > be considered by contracting authorities. To demonstrate > equivalence, tenderers should be permitted to use any form of > evidence. Contracting authorities must be able to provide a > reason for any decision that equivalence does not exist in a > given case. Contracting authorities that wish to define > environmental requirements for the technical specifications of a > given contract may lay down the environmental characteristics, > such as a given production method, and/or specific environmental > effects of product groups or services. They can use, but are not > obliged to use appropriate specifications that are defined in > eco-labels, such as the European Eco-label, (multi-)national > eco-labels or any other eco-label providing the requirements for > the label are drawn up and adopted on the basis of scientific > information using a procedure in which stakeholders, such as > government bodies, consumers, manufacturers, distributors and > environmental organisations can participate, and providing the > label is accessible and available to all interested parties. > Contracting authorities should, whenever possible, lay down > technical specifications so as to take into account > accessibility criteria for people with disabilities or design > for all users. The technical specifications should be clearly > indicated, so that all tenderers know what the requirements > established by the contracting authority cover." > > > [1] <http://ec.europa.eu/competition/> (working on MS antitrust case) > [2] <http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/publicprocurement/> > [3] > <http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32004L0018:EN:HTML> > > -- > Jan Claeys > > > -- > loco-contacts mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/loco-contacts > -- loco-contacts mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/loco-contacts
