OPINION: The curious case of PAP Town Council's tender notice with no details

The Online Citizen, 31 Dec 2012



First and foremost, the project description is ludicrously vague. What does “THE DEVELOPED APPLICATION SOFTWARE” refer to? What is the software and what does it do? How does the software work – standalone on a personal computer, or over a network? What platform does the software operate on, say Windows or Macintosh or even Linux? And again, and obviously most importantly, what is the software and what does it do?
And it only says “CONTRACT FOR THE PURCHASE” – but who is doing the purchasing? On the face of it, it almost sounds like the Town Councils were looking to buy some software to be developed for it, instead of looking to sell already-developed software.
The project description is also incomplete. It only talks about the “PURCHASE” of the software – but it turns out that the contract was not just for the Town Councils to sell the software, but also for a license-back by the purchaser to the Town Councils with continuing obligations to provide support and maintenance to the Town Councils. Full story