Relations are still strained between the Spanish computer industry and Spain’s Public Administration, Eusebio Gutia Brrez, president of the Spanish Association of Information Technology Companies Public Market Commission, told Computerworld Espana. The Commission was set up in February 1992 to determine what the Administration’s purchasing plans were, to enable Association members to plan their activities accordingly, and to try and ensure fair play when it comes to contracting, and to do what it can in the fight to reduce the Public Administration’s long-term debt to companies in the sector. Of all purchases made, 50% come from central government, 10% to 15% from local government and the remaining 35% to 40% from the autonomous governments. The Association maintains contact with the main bodies concerned with establishing purchasing policy: the Consejo Superior de Informatica – Computing Advisory Council – which is the most important, while the Inter-ministerial Commission for the Acquisition of Information Technology Systems, the State Property Administration and the General Purchasing Subdepartment are also important. Gutia Brrez says relations with these groups are cordial, but that the industry is now accustomed to hearing fine intentions, while actually receiving very little. It is well-nigh impossible for the Commission to learn of the Administration’s plans when they are formulated. Budgets are not very clear, and looking at expenditure forecasts, it is difficult to detect what is IT and what is not. There is often a delay of two years before budget details become clear, at which point such information is of little use. Our complaints about this have so far fallen on deaf ears, he declared.
Outstanding debt
There is a considerable problem with money owed to companies, which stood at $640m last September. The Association has put forward a number of amendments it feels should be incorporated in the new Bill covering the Public Administration’s contracting activities, whereby companies to which payment has been overdue for some months will receive increasing amounts of interest in proportion to how long they have been waiting. This would bring Spain more into line with other European Community countries. The Bill is now reaching Congress, and Gutia Brrez welcomes the fact that it includes plans to create a Public Register of Contracts, and to make it obligatory for more information to be communicated about the results of bidding, and upon request, the reasons why a contract has not been awarded to a particular company. Gutia Brrez is also pleased that Article 176 of the same Bill aims to oblige the Government to divulge any purchase costing more than $735,295 which it is planning to make within the next 12 months. So why do companies continue to sell to central, local and autonomous government? Because companies are loath to abandon any market share in the current economic climate, says the president. He feels that the various strata of government are taking advantage of this situation to force down prices to the point where companies’ margins are considerably reduced and may even vanish altogether into loss on some occasions, which could result in these companies having to start laying off people in the long term.
