The Ministry of Public Administration is seeking Cabinet's approval for a US$30 million sole selection tendering contract to Microsoft Trinidad and Tobago for three years. The contract, a renewal of an Enterprise Agreement (EA) between the Government of T&T and Microsoft T&T, is expected to cost the Government $194, 471,273.25 and cover the period 2011-2013. Microsoft provided desktop and support services, throughout the Public Service, from 2007 to 2010. The contract expired in May 2010, the month in which the general election was held and a different administration, the People's Partnership, was elected.
Industry sources told the T&T Guardian that in order to secure software licence coverage thereafter, the Government through Finance Minister Winston Dookeran, opted to engage in a one-year extension of that agreement which ended in May 2011. Further, Dookeran mandated that "the extension period be used by the Government to undertake a comprehensive inventory of its Microsoft licence usage; align its projects and national priorities with the outcomes in the EA and negotiate a new EA." The T&T Guardian learnt that apart from the EA being retendered in the market, the Ministry of Public Administration was also supposed to re-tender for anti-virus protection. Presently, McAfee provides anti-virus protection.
"Cabinet was uncomfortable at the time at the cost of the project. It was agreed that the ministry would go back out to tender and come back with a recommendation," a source explained.
With a year lag before the EA would have expired, only a renewal agreement was presented to Cabinet on May 16. "Cabinet is advised that the Ministry of Public Administration will approach the Central Tenders Board for sole selection tendering for the Microsoft Enterprise Agreement. The justification that will be advanced is compatibility/consistency with software already in use in the Public Service," information obtained by the T&T Guardian revealed. Of the $194, 471,273.25 sum, $25,868,192.24 is for unauthorised usage of Microsoft licences over the contracted period-from May 2007 to May 2011.
But the contract's sum and the manner in which it is being handled has caused some anxiety.
The T&T Guardian was told that the contract would have to be renewed through the Central Tenders Board.
"As such, three quotations are normally obtained. And a justification has to be advanced for sole select, such as if the company is unique and offering services which no one else can provide," an industry source told the Guardian. "Normally, if it's just a renewal, there's no reason to go for open tender. But in this instance, it was the Government, when it came into power which complained about the cost and mandated that it go out to tender," the source explained. "If the argument being advanced is that there's compatibility then there's good justification and reason to continue with the entity," the source added.
The T&T Guardian understands that on the desktop-which consists the majority of the licences in this contract-there are several competitors to Microsoft Office such as Oracle's "Open Office," IBM's Lotus Symphony and Corel.
"Open Source options include "Libre Office." There are also options/alternatives in the "Cloud" from Google (Google Docs) Oracle Cloud Office, IBM Lotus Live Symphony, Zoho Office Suite and even Microsoft themselves with Office 365. The Cloud allows you to pay per user on a monthly or annual basis using the software over the Internet. As low as US$4-5 per month per user, the T&T Guardian was told.
The options, industry sources said, are all compatible with Microsoft Office. The Guardian was told that the cost could have been significantly cheaper to the Government had they explored alternatives even while retaining a few of the software licences agreements with Microsoft. "Of that money, over $60 million is in services with no tender procedure or defined scope," one industry source complained.
But the argument advanced to the Cabinet for the sole select tendering are:
• e-Government Services that will leverage the investment in the ttconnect portal to effectively deliver e-services to citizens thereby impacting their quality of life;
• education in which the impact of the e-Connect and Learn (student laptop) initiative will be expanded and in which emphasis is placed on teacher development; and
• some 40,104 hours of onsite consulting and 18,733 offshore consulting hours to be utilised to address Government performance, ICT-related issues.
Non-renewal of the Microsoft EA, the argument continued, could result in:
• T&T Government would have to buy licences on a per transaction basis at open licence prices, which in some cases are as much as 97 per cent more expensive than the renewal pricing;
•The opportunity to regularise, in a structured manner, the mis-licensing/ under-licensing that can happen in a large complex environment such as Government would be foregone;
• If the Government chose to re-enter into another EA in the future, the agreement would be reset from the beginning and the licence component in addition to the software assurances component would have to be repurchased.
The Guardian understands that the matter was referred to the Finance and General Purposes Committee, but for now, it is before the Cabinet. Last year, Microsoft "discounted" the software for Government's free laptops programme and in April, the company invited Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to give an address at Microsoft function titled, Public Sector Leaders Forum. Persad-Bissessar also held meetings with several senior executives at Microsoft, including Linda Zechner, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft's Worldwide Public Sector organisation; Alvaro Celis, General Manager of Microsoft's Multi Country Americas region covering the Caribbean, Central America and part of South America; and Hernán Rincón, President of Microsoft Latin America. Microsoft is a major sponsor of the Caribbean Investment Forum which begins today at the Hilton.
