IBM SLOVAKIA has asked Transparency International, a corruption watchdog, to look into Slovakia's troubled tender for the State Treasury's IT system, throwing a wrench into the Finance Ministry's fifth attempt to select a winner.
After having its fourth tender cancelled in April because of complaints by Siemens Business Services that it had been unfairly excluded, the Finance Ministry decided in late July to select an eventual winner through closed negotiations with both Siemens and HP, the winner of all previous tenders.
IBM, however, says they have been unfairly excluded from the contract, although they had submitted a bid last May.
Officials from the Finance Ministry said they had not accepted the IBM bid in May because the tender had been cancelled, and they had not considered it in July's decision because IBM's 600-page bid had not been evaluated.
IBM claims its bid of Sk918 million to provide a comprehensive package of hardware, software and services to the treasury is Sk300 million lower than the cheapest bid in April's cancelled tender.
