GRTU and the government yesterday continued their battle over the proposed IT tender.

GRTU sources yesterday told this paper that the association has now been told by its UK advisers that the tender is designed for big corporations such as Dell or HP and that it is for 20,000 pieces, not 15,000.

On the other hand, government sources have told this paper that for all the GRTU claims that this tender would shut down a multitude of small firms, only two firms sold laptops in quantity to the government in 2006, FGL which sold 64 and Tabone Computer Centre which sold 106, of a total of 223. And only three companies sold PCs in quantity in the same year – Compunet with 420, Island Engineering Services with 346 and NCS Computers with 20 of a total of 1030.

The government sources also pointed out that while most of these companies represent international brand names and so can take part in the tender, it could be that it is the financial state of some of the companies which may impede them from taking part in it.

A parliamentary question last week revealed that a study carried out by MITTS on e-procurement has shown that a majority of computers in the government service were not up to mark. Efforts by GRTU and by this paper to get a copy of the report proved fruitless. GRTU sources said that procurement of hardware and its maintenance gave work to a number of people in small companies which would be jeopardised with this contract.

The IT Ministry yesterday said that Leo Brincat has opted not to appoint a representative to take part in the evaluation process of the tender.