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Last update - 00:00 12/03/2002
Finance ministry backtracks on software freebie from Microsoft
By Yuval Dror

The Finance Ministry has decided not to accept a donation of Microsoft software valued at $20 million. The treasury did an about-turn after Ha'aretz asked for the ministry's reaction to the fact that Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein was examining the agreement between Accountant General Nir Gilad and the software giant.

The treasury said that it would buy the software that it needed through tenders.

In February of this year, Microsoft agreed to make the donation as part of a public sector computing project and Bill Gates of Microsoft signed an agreement with the treasury. On March 4, however, a forum of independent lawyers approached Rubinstein and asked him to examine the suitability of such an agreement.

The donation was not straightforward and raised a number of legal questions, claimed the lawyers. If the software required maintenance and upgrading, would this not constitute a contravention of the legal requirement to issue a tender for the work, the lawyers asked. Rubinstein agreed to investigate the matter thoroughly.

"All the company's operations are conducted with the approval of all government parties concerned," said a Microsoft spokesman
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