Public tenders: Are you paying for something that is actually free?
Many pay thousands to participate in public tenders. The Cobrief CEO was interviewed by Finansavisen about why this is a problem.
The public sector purchases goods and services for over 800 billion NOK annually. You know that your company has what it takes to win a share of this pool. But the path there can feel unnecessarily complicated and expensive.
Sound familiar? You are not alone.
Recently, our CEO, Jonas Klafstad, was interviewed by Finansavisen in the supplement Kapital Jus about a major problem in the Norwegian tender market: Many businesses pay tens of thousands of kroner for access to the competition documentation for public tenders. According to the law, this should be free, directly and unlimitedly accessible. Is it really that when suppliers find that they have to pay to gain access?
This is not just unfair, it is a barrier to healthy competition.
That suppliers should find themselves having to pay a private company for access to competition documentation, which according to the law should be free, is strange. It is the same as having to pay to get your ballot.
Screenshot from the article. Photo: Eivind Yggeseth
Public tenders are already a complicated process for suppliers. As Jonas Klafstad says, this practice can have major consequences for the state's services to you and me:
The law states that access should be free and unlimited. But that matters little if the documents in practice are behind design choices, registration requirements, and upselling. Suppliers find they have to buy additional services, and then competition is weakened. There are fewer proposals, less innovation, and poorer use of resources.
Here you can read the full article. What do you think?