The President of NP “Russoft” accuses the expert council of bias in including software in the register of Russian software.
According to the government decree, from January 1, 2016, government agencies should purchase software from this registry and only if there is no necessary software in it, they can purchase foreign products.
As is known, the Expert Council under the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media is filling in the Software Registry. The corresponding section “The Unified Register of Russian Programs for Electronic Computers and Databases” has been created on the website of the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media. Experts rejected 20 of the more than 300 applications filed by Russian developers. However, such results already cause criticism from some representatives of the IT industry.
Valentin Makarov, president of the non-profit partnership of developers of “Russoft”, believes that the expert council making the decision to include software in the registry “is not always able to avoid discrepancies, mistakes, conflicts of interest when making decisions”. For example, applications of companies are often transferred to experts working with competitors who also claim to be included in the registry. This is unacceptable because “in this case, the expert’s negative conclusion is, in fact, one of the forms of competition,” he explains in a letter to the Director of the High-Tech Development Department of the Ministry of Communications Dmitry Chernov.
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The advisory council includes not only representatives of IT companies, but also specialists from federal executive bodies, innovation development institutes, associations of Russian software developers, retorts the Ministry. “These kinds of statements need to be supported by concrete examples and evidence. If there are any facts, we will check them, ”commented Elena Zaeva, the head of the department for regulating communications and IT FAS.
However, we must not forget that the president of Russoft sent a letter only after refusing to include products of the IT Group in the register. This is reported by several interlocutors of Kommersant in the IT market. Therefore, in response, the Ministry of Communications may also accuse him of bias.
Chairman of the Board of Directors of IT Co. and a member of the board of Russoft Tagir Yapparov told Kommersant that eight software products of IT Co. were included in the register, and three more were not. “For example, our software WorksPad refused to be included in the registry, because it uses foreign-made components, which the expert council referred to as the“ key functionality ”of the product. At the same time, there is no such language in the government resolution, and the use of foreign components in a reasonable amount is allowed, ”says Mr. Yapparov.
The reason for refusal to include in the registry is most often the non-transparent shareholder structure of the company, in which its final beneficiaries are not clear, and the fact that the software product is based on foreign software and cannot work without it, explains the executive director of the IT-cluster Skolkovo Igor Bogachev.
Most of the products already have direct competitors in the registry, so accusations of conflicts of interest are unsubstantiated, says Yevgeny Vasilenko, executive director of the Association of Software Product Developers. In her opinion, "now there are attempts to formally circumvent the criteria and play with legal terms." The task of the council, the expert emphasizes, is to stop such attempts, for this very purpose it was created.
Decisions of the expert body are taken by a simple majority of votes of its members participating in the meeting, including remotely. In case of equality of votes, the vote of the chairman is decisive. “The basic condition of the board’s work is that officials, departmental representatives cannot have more than 40% of the vote in it, while representatives of the IT industry - those in whose interests the reform is being implemented - should have at least 50% of the vote,” said Head of the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media Nikolay Nikiforov.
As is known, the Expert Council under the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media is filling in the Software Registry. The corresponding section “The Unified Register of Russian Programs for Electronic Computers and Databases” has been created on the website of the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media. Experts rejected 20 of the more than 300 applications filed by Russian developers. However, such results already cause criticism from some representatives of the IT industry.
Valentin Makarov, president of the non-profit partnership of developers of “Russoft”, believes that the expert council making the decision to include software in the registry “is not always able to avoid discrepancies, mistakes, conflicts of interest when making decisions”. For example, applications of companies are often transferred to experts working with competitors who also claim to be included in the registry. This is unacceptable because “in this case, the expert’s negative conclusion is, in fact, one of the forms of competition,” he explains in a letter to the Director of the High-Tech Development Department of the Ministry of Communications Dmitry Chernov.
NP Russoft unites about a hundred Russian and foreign companies.Makarov also said that the experts apply the criteria "not provided for in the government decree." They, in particular, believe that "products based on free software should have significant refinement in Russia, and components of foreign production as part of a software product should not constitute its main functionality." The president of Russoft suggests the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media to introduce a procedure for checking experts for conflicts of interest with companies that have submitted applications to the registry, as well as to refine the methodology for determining the criteria for domestic software, writes Kommersant with reference to a letter to Valentin Makarova.
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The advisory council includes not only representatives of IT companies, but also specialists from federal executive bodies, innovation development institutes, associations of Russian software developers, retorts the Ministry. “These kinds of statements need to be supported by concrete examples and evidence. If there are any facts, we will check them, ”commented Elena Zaeva, the head of the department for regulating communications and IT FAS.
However, we must not forget that the president of Russoft sent a letter only after refusing to include products of the IT Group in the register. This is reported by several interlocutors of Kommersant in the IT market. Therefore, in response, the Ministry of Communications may also accuse him of bias.
Chairman of the Board of Directors of IT Co. and a member of the board of Russoft Tagir Yapparov told Kommersant that eight software products of IT Co. were included in the register, and three more were not. “For example, our software WorksPad refused to be included in the registry, because it uses foreign-made components, which the expert council referred to as the“ key functionality ”of the product. At the same time, there is no such language in the government resolution, and the use of foreign components in a reasonable amount is allowed, ”says Mr. Yapparov.
The reason for refusal to include in the registry is most often the non-transparent shareholder structure of the company, in which its final beneficiaries are not clear, and the fact that the software product is based on foreign software and cannot work without it, explains the executive director of the IT-cluster Skolkovo Igor Bogachev.
Most of the products already have direct competitors in the registry, so accusations of conflicts of interest are unsubstantiated, says Yevgeny Vasilenko, executive director of the Association of Software Product Developers. In her opinion, "now there are attempts to formally circumvent the criteria and play with legal terms." The task of the council, the expert emphasizes, is to stop such attempts, for this very purpose it was created.
Decisions of the expert body are taken by a simple majority of votes of its members participating in the meeting, including remotely. In case of equality of votes, the vote of the chairman is decisive. “The basic condition of the board’s work is that officials, departmental representatives cannot have more than 40% of the vote in it, while representatives of the IT industry - those in whose interests the reform is being implemented - should have at least 50% of the vote,” said Head of the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media Nikolay Nikiforov.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/300020/
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