Critic questions National Library scanner tender

Details of an Estonian National Library scanner tender have raised concerns that its technical specifications favour a single manufacturer, ERR reported. Entrepreneur and Parempoolsed party member Henrik Aavik criticised the tender, while the library’s director rejected the allegations.

Aavik said a comparison of the tender documents with manufacturers’ technical data sheets showed that several requirements matched the specifications of equipment made by German manufacturer Zeutschel.

“I started reading the technical specifications alongside the manufacturers’ data sheets, and it turns out that the Zeutschel OS HQ has to win, probably a machine costing more than 150,000 euros,” Aavik wrote on LinkedIn.

He said the technical description ruled out a one-shot camera sensor and required exactly one optical camera. Zeutschel’s main competitor in the A0 format, book2net, uses an area sensor in its Hornet A0 scanner, he added.

“One sentence, two exclusions, and the main competitor is out of the game,” Aavik said.

Aavik said the tender might not violate the law but could reduce competition. He argued that public procurement should be based on describing what the buyer needs to do rather than copying the specifications of one manufacturer.

He said the National Library already uses Zeutschel equipment and that wanting to continue with the same manufacturer was understandable. However, he added that although the law requires references to a specific manufacturer to include a corresponding note, this might not be enough if the technical requirements are designed around one producer’s equipment.

“A quality standard is a justified requirement, but the bit depth of internal image processing is not,” Aavik said. He also told ERR that deliberately targeted tenders were unfortunately common and reduced the transparency of public procurement.

Library rejects criticism

Martin Õövel, director general of the Estonian National Library, said the scanner tender published in the public procurement register did not automatically exclude other competitors.

“The tender’s compliance conditions include and thoroughly describe an equivalence condition, which allows all bidders to offer products that meet the functionalities required for the subject of the tender,” Õövel said.

According to Õövel, the requirements were based on the specific workflows of the National Library’s digitisation centre and the variety of materials to be scanned.

He added that the tender had been publicly available in the procurement register since June 26, and that no questions or proposals concerning its technical requirements had been submitted to the contracting authority during that time.

Õövel said all interested bidders still had sufficient time to request changes to the technical requirements or tender documents. Under the Public Procurement Act, the contracting authority must review and answer all proposals and questions submitted by potential bidders during the procedure through the procurement register, and make changes where adequately justified.

The deadline for submitting bids for the National Library’s A0-format scanner tender is August 14.