A total of five small and medium-sized enterprises have submitted their bid for the ICT tender for the leasing of personal computers and laptops and workstation support services for Maltese schools and teachers.

The tendering process continued yesterday when the Malta Information Technology and Teaching Services Ltd, the government’s IT entity, received five bids from SMEs.

The five companies are: IT Leasing Consortium, composed of S&T, ADS, Computer Solutions and Forestals; 2i Nova; Aplan and HP World; Merlin Computers and Intercomp Marketing.

In a statement, the Investments, Industry and Information Technology Ministry said that this confirms that it is not true that the tender document precluded SMEs from submitting their bids and neither did it give any business an advantage over another. It said this also showed that the bid bond was not excessive and one which could not be deposited by small and medium-sized enterprises.

The ministry said the government has faith in Maltese SMEs and their capabilities as well as the high level of service, professionalism and good prices they offer.