No info on Turkey’s biggest ITC tender

Turkey had been a rising star for the last couple of years in many fronts. However while the government was receiving praises from the outside world many were complaining about the lack of accountability and transparency. These people were raising voices against the destruction of the check and balances systems. However they were few in numbers and many others were emphasizing the need to grow fast and the majority was willing to sacrifice transparency in favor of growth.

Now, I see the same people who were so keen on supporting the “one ring that will rule them all” style, preaching about the need for a better check and balances systems if we want to grow faster in stability.

I wish that the government will hear this enlightenment of the liberal writers. No one wants to overthrow the government; we all want to live in a more liberal and richer society. The re-installment of transparency would increase our stability more and our economy will prosper faster.

However the latest developments are not very encouraging.

On Wednesday The Minister of Transportation Binali Yıldırım said that during the Gezi events they wanted to cooperate with Facebook and Twitter. He added that Facebook cooperated where as Twitter refused to do so. He underlined the fact that Twitter is earning money in Turkey and that’s why it has to comply with the government requests.

I don’t think so.

It doesn’t necessarily follow that a company should cooperate fully with the authorities if the company is earning money in that country. All the companies must abide with the laws not with the government requests. It is really disturbing to mix the two all the time. So why our minister talks as if they are the same thing?

I don’t know.

We see the same kind of thinking in the Fatih Project tender held on Tuesday. The tender was for 8 billion dollars worth of 11 Million pads. I couldn’t see any news at any newspapers or TV channels regarding about this tender. Mind you, it is the biggest technology tender ever held in Turkey. No news, no statements, can you believe it? Okey lets say there were only a few as a press release but none with hard questions.

There are 11 companies that attended the tender;

1. Samsung Electronic Co. Ltd
2. Samsung Elektronik İstanbul Paz. tic. AŞ.
3. Mobil Tel-Elektromed İş Ortaklığı
4. Vestel Elektronik Sanayi Ticaret AŞ.
5. Casper- Exper-Probil İş Ortaklığı
6. Apple Teknoloji ve Satış Ltd. Ş.
7. Telpa Telekomünikasyon AŞ. – Atmaca Elektronik Aş. İş ortaklığı
8. Microsoft Corporation
9. Arçelik AŞ.
10. Toshiba Europe
11. HP Teknoloji Çözümleri


However none of them is fit for the tender as the tender document is impossible to comply with fully. I will write about in the next week.

The real question here is that if the government informed people well enough for the biggest ICT tender regarding education in our history?

 The answer is no.

What would they lose if they informed the public regularly and openly?

The answer is nothing.

So why they don’t do it?

I don’t know.