Several software companies asked to publish prices for products and services to be sold to the state

Sorin Grindeanu, the Romanian minister for Information Society, has led discussions with various software companies so that they will reach an agreement to publish the prices of their products in relation to the Romanian state.

In an interview for Ziarul Financiar, Grindeanu said that state officials who signed for the acquisition of overpriced Microsoft licenses are the ones to blame in the corruption case involving the Microsoft licenses and has a plan to set up a mechanism that will reduce chances that such corruption cases take place again.

Grindeanu said he had a series of direct meetings with representatives of Microsoft and the way of acquiring the licenses will become more transparent

“What I have managed, together with them and I hope we will come out to announce in the future period is that all this process that Microsoft is doing through re-sellers is as transparent as possible, because right now it is not,” said Grindeanu.

The minister for Information Society also explained the ministry he leads does not have full attributions as far as IT contracts are concerned.

“The Ministry for Information Society does and does not have a role in the IT&C projects of the state institutions. It should have the role of those who create the framework according to which at least state institutions should carry out their activity in the relation to citizens. We should be those who are regulating, who are creating this framework. Of course, on paper we can say that it is so, but the reality is that some islands have developed- each institution tried to develop this IT department without taking into account the bigger picture, Many of the institutions have done good things- and I don’t mean to criticize- but unfortunately not in a unitary concept very many times, Here I think the role of this ministry should be strengthened,” said Grindeanu for Ziarul Financiar.

The Microsoft licenses were sold to the Romanian state via re-sellers. According to Romanian anti-corruption authorities, the re-sellers received from Microsoft a 47 percent discount but this discount was not transferred in the final price paid by the Romanian state. This corruption case involves officials from the highest echelon of the Romanian politics.