[Chapter-delegates] Formal investigation against Microsoft deal in Bulgaria

[Sivasubramanian Muthusamy]

Approximately $1000 for the software licence alone per  PC and $1000
for the software license alone per server on such high volumes as
60,000 units, prepaid 6 months in advance ????

On Wed, Jul 2, 2008 at 8:35 PM, Dessi Pefeva <dpefeva at isoc.bg> wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> You have already seen some information about this "deal" before, but
> here is today's development:
> http://blog.veni.com/?p=512
>
>
>
> Bulgarian Prosecutors launch formal investigation about Government deal
> with Microsoft
>
> The prosecution office of the Bulgarian capital Sofia has launched a
> formal investigation about the contract Bulgaria has signed with a
> Microsoft distributor for the acquisition of software for the needs of
> the state administration.
>
> The investigation is based on collected data and proofs in a preliminary
> probe, made by the police. It aims at "unnamed public officials",
> according to Sofia city prosecution spokesperson Steliana Kozhouharova,
> as quoted by the Bulgarian influential
> <http://www.dnevnik.bg/show/?storyid=521068>Dnevnik daily.
>
> I've <http://blog.veni.com/?p=389>blogged about this dirty deal in
> details in December 2007. In short: the price, paid for the software (by
> the way, well in advance - 6 months before the beginning of the
> contract; the distributor said that he'll keep the money "in a Bulgarian
> bank" thus making sure he contributes to the financial system of the
> country /sic!/) is much higher than the price of the same software in
> the shop. The average computer shop in Bulgaria sells the software for
> half the price, paid by the government. Considering the fact, that in
> such huge cases, Microsoft usually gives high discounts, it is
> interesting to see what the prosecution has found in its preliminary
> probe in order to file a formal investigation.
> The distributor - CAPK "Progress" (a remnant from communist time, as it
> was found well before the changes in Bulgaria, and to some sources
> considered as a company, organized by the former State Security) has
> offered price of Leva 68 760 000 (approx: Euro 34 M; 1 Euro is equal to
> 1.95 Bulgarian Leva by law) for 60 000 licenses for PC and Leva 2 674
> 100 for 2000 licenses for server operating systems (OS). With the 20 %
> VAT the total amount reaches Leva 85,7 M or almost Euro 44 Million.
>
> [Minister of State Administration] "N.Vassilev, who has come under
> strong public criticism for signing the deal, refused to comment on the
> prosecution inquiry, telling Dnevnik he had not heard of any probe".
>
> Microsoft has been blamed publicly for bringing corruption to the
> emerging markets, most recently in Budapest, Hungary in May this year,
> when Steve Ballmer <http://blog.veni.com/?p=485>was egged while giving a
> speech at the university.
> The U.S. company was also <http://blog.veni.com/?p=450>fined by the
> European Commission with record Eur 899 M in February, that after some
> more fines ranging in the hundreds of millions Euro in the previous years.
>
>
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