Free software and Public Administration

From the Italian Association for Free Software (Associazione Software Libero) a press release about a case concerning free software and Public Administration

"The Italian Ministry of Work withdraws the call for tenders appealed by the Associazione per il Software Libero (Free Software Association)

The story

On february the 21st 2006 the Italian Ministry of Work and Social Politics - Department of Technological Innovation published in the Official Journal of the Italian Republic n. 43 a call for tenders for the supply of an amount of Euro 4.539.184,55 of Microsoft software licenses.

This call for tenders allowed to participate only resellers qualified by Microsoft as "Large Account Resellers": just 11 Italian companies comply with this.

According to Italian law, before buying software Public Administrations have to compare all available options, including free software.

In this case such evaluation was omitted and free competition principles were violated: just resellers of one company's products were allowed to compete.

For this reason "Associazione per il Software Libero" decided to appeal this call for tenders before the court (Regional Administrative Tribunal of Lazio-Rome) filing case n. 3838/2006.

Press Release

There is no need to wait for the final decision in the case promoted by the Associazione per il Software Libero against the Ministry of Work and Social Politics before the Administrative Tribunal of Lazio Region appealing the call for tenders for the supply of Microsoft software licenses.

The Ministry withdrawn the call for tenders with act of annullment. [1]

WE WON. Therefore 4.5 million Euros of public money will not be spent on proprietary software licenses, since the Ministry failed to consider free software options.

The most important result is that Associazione per il Software Libero succeeded in monitoring actions of public institutions in a domain -information technologies - that too often responds to pressures of some
companies and to mere "technical" reasons instead of focusing on public benefit: free access to information (free format), adoption of trustworthy technologies (free software) and use of public money for the benefit of the citizens.

It is worth highlighting that decision n. 428/07 legitimates Associazione per il Software Libero to further act with the goal of promoting free software use in Public Administration.

"This is good news", says Richard Stallman, founder of the GNU project.
Professor Angelo Raffaele Meo, of the Polytechnic of Turin and former president of the Stanca Commission, also congratulated Associazione per il Software Libero and lawyers Marco Ciurcina and Antonio Bertoldini for their extraordinary victory.

"Our job is not finished yet", said Paolo Didone', president of Associazione per il Software Libero. "In the wake of this achievement, the Associazione is starting two new campaigns with the goal of
continuing fight for freedom in information technology: 100 new associates within the 2007 and Assolimprese".

[1] Decree of the General Director prot. 16/I/1141 dated 19.02.2007"