The municipality of Kerkrade has won the ‘Open call for tenders of the year’ competition held by Netherlands in Open Connection (NoiV), the Dutch government’s resource centre on open standards and open source. The announcement was made at NoiV’s annual conference in Utrecht on 24 March 2011.
Kerkrade, a municipality in the province of Limburg in south-eastern Netherlands, won the award for the procurement of a Content Management System (CMS). The other two candidates in the shortlist were Saxion University of Applied Sciences in Enschede and Deventer in the province of Overijssel in eastern Netherlands for the procurement of an identity management system, and the municipality of Spijkenisse in the province of South Holland in western Netherlands for the procurement of an electronic human resource management (e-HRM) system.
Eilander Siep, president of the jury, said it was difficult to make a choice. "In particular, it was difficult to choose between the Limburg municipality and Saxion University. The decisive factor was that the visibility of the procurement of Kerkrade - for a Content Management System - was slightly greater and the compactness of the contract was seen as attractive."
During 2010, the NoiV programme office decided which calls for tenders should be awarded the title ‘Open call for tenders of the month’ based on:
- the selection criteria;
- the use of the specific ‘comply or explain’ (pas toe-of-leg uit’-lijst, in Dutch) principle; and,
- clear award opportunities for tenders based on open source software.
Furthermore, it was important for the selection that the calls for tender be of a higher quality than the average.
Walter van Holst, the legal advisor at NoiV, said: “From this selection of tenders of the month, three tenders were nominated that cover both the aforementioned criteria but also can become an inspiration for other tendering services.”
The jury consisted of Siep Eilander, Ton van Geijlswijk, Dinant Lubbers, Tjeerd Veenstra and Harry van Zon. It decided on the winner not merely on the basis of it being an ‘open’ tender.
Eilander explained: "In the nomination process we deliberated at great length. We focused on the quality of the procedure, the quality of the documents from a public procurement perspective, the feasibility and practicability of the procurement, and whether it would act as a source of inspiration for other bids."
The representative of the Kerkrade nomination was surprised by the victory. "No, I did not expect it. I am very proud that we, as a medium-sized municipality, were able to take this award."
Note: The original article in Dutch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
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