Quebec gov. illegal upgrade to Vista challenged->
Submitted
by
MagicFab
MagicFab writes "Montreal-based free-software integrator Savoir-faire Linux has filed a motion for a declaratory judgment against the Régie des Rentes du Québec, a Quebec government organization in charge of pension plans, regarding a contract awarded to Microsoft. The company feels that regulations and policies on the awarding of public contracts have not been observed, as no call for tenders has been announced.
Savoir-faire Linux has made several requests to the Régie des rentes du Québec, but the organisation is maintaining its decision to renew their software without launching a call for tenders. Savoir-faire Linux is now calling upon the courts to declare that the Régie cannot proceed in this manner and that it must give all suppliers, including free software suppliers, the chance to bid.
In Québec, access to public contracts is the rule, while awarding a contract without a call for tenders is the exception. In principle, a contract must be made available to all, in a transparent and fair manner. Presented solutions and propositions must then be objectively evaluated based on criteria that are both known and accepted by all. For more information about the Declaratory Judgement Motion legalese, see article #453 of Quebec's Code of Civil Procedure. Such code is "...intended to render effective the substantive law and to ensure that it is carried out; and failing a provision to the contrary, failure to observe the rules which are not of public order can only affect a proceeding if the defect has not been remedied when it was possible to do so. The provisions of this Code must be interpreted the one by the other, and, so far as possible, in such a way as to facilitate rather than to delay or to end prematurely the normal advancement of cases."
To this effect, a motion for a declaratory judgment was filed with the Superior Court of Québec last Friday in Québec City. For more information, please see the motion to institute proceedings for a declaratory judgment and the sworn statement given by Mr. Cyrille Béraud, President of Savoir-faire Linux inc..
The original press release for this is here. It's also been blogged in french and spanish. It's interesting to see all documentation has been made available and is now being translated by different FLOSS-in-Government advocacy groups. This includes emails exchanged with the governement and the full text of the original motion, which constitutes a good primer on how corporations and governements keep entering agreements that only benefit the shareholders."
Link to Original Source
Savoir-faire Linux has made several requests to the Régie des rentes du Québec, but the organisation is maintaining its decision to renew their software without launching a call for tenders. Savoir-faire Linux is now calling upon the courts to declare that the Régie cannot proceed in this manner and that it must give all suppliers, including free software suppliers, the chance to bid.
In Québec, access to public contracts is the rule, while awarding a contract without a call for tenders is the exception. In principle, a contract must be made available to all, in a transparent and fair manner. Presented solutions and propositions must then be objectively evaluated based on criteria that are both known and accepted by all. For more information about the Declaratory Judgement Motion legalese, see article #453 of Quebec's Code of Civil Procedure. Such code is "...intended to render effective the substantive law and to ensure that it is carried out; and failing a provision to the contrary, failure to observe the rules which are not of public order can only affect a proceeding if the defect has not been remedied when it was possible to do so. The provisions of this Code must be interpreted the one by the other, and, so far as possible, in such a way as to facilitate rather than to delay or to end prematurely the normal advancement of cases."
To this effect, a motion for a declaratory judgment was filed with the Superior Court of Québec last Friday in Québec City. For more information, please see the motion to institute proceedings for a declaratory judgment and the sworn statement given by Mr. Cyrille Béraud, President of Savoir-faire Linux inc..
The original press release for this is here. It's also been blogged in french and spanish. It's interesting to see all documentation has been made available and is now being translated by different FLOSS-in-Government advocacy groups. This includes emails exchanged with the governement and the full text of the original motion, which constitutes a good primer on how corporations and governements keep entering agreements that only benefit the shareholders."
Link to Original Source