Public administrations in the EU are hindering competition by asking for specific brands and products when procuring software solutions, says OpenForum Europe, an organisation campaigning for an open, competitive ICT market. “No progress has been made in recent years. In fact the practice of referring to brand names in public procurement has become more widespread”, OFE says.
The advocacy group wants EU decision-makers to introduce measures that would open up public procurement to all economic actors, including small and medium-sized enterprises. “By ensuring that procurement policies and processes do not discriminate against certain types of business models or suppliers, the existing barriers to entry will be reduced.”
Europe’s procurement rules produce confusing results, OFE writes. The group blames a combination of national and regional measures, plus the set of soft law communications put forward by the European Commission.
“We actually welcome the soft law from the EC”, adds Maël Brunet, OFE’s director of European Policy, “and we agree that the focus should be on educating procuring authorities. But more should be done.”
Open standards
Thursday, OFE published the results of its examining of 972 tender notices published between 1 April and 30 June on TED, the procurement website aggregating tenders from public administrations in the EU. The group found that 23 percent of these requests included technical specifications with explicit references to trademarks. “A cursory analysis of the discriminatory impact of these trademark references shows that 18 percent of all tender notices explicitly demanded or expressed a clear preference for the products of a specific vendor.”
OFE wants procuring authorities to take into account the exit barriers - including costs for switching to alternative ICT solutions. High exit costs often force public administrations to use exceptional awarding procedures to extend existing contracts, instead of inviting competitors to bid.
Using open standards standards is crucial issue for software interoperability, OFE says: “In this domain, industry and government should be aligned. Openness, transparency, and efficiency serves all stakeholders.”
Community
Earlier this month, a European study into 12.808 ICT procurement requests published over the past five years shows that on average 15 per cent of public administrations flout procurement rules. This earlier study looked at all types of ICT tenders, whereas OFE concentrates on those for software.
That study was produced for a community on the Joinup platform that facilitates and promotes the use of standards when procuring ICT. The project is part of the European Commission’s Digital Agenda.
More information:
OFE announcement
OSOR news item
OSOR news item
Open Standards for ICT Procurement community