The Bundestag has just published its new app, which was developed by a start-up, but not from Berlin or Hamburg, but from the Czech start-up company Ackee. Danyal Bayaz, start-up representative of the parliamentary group Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen, does not find it reprehensible to award the contract to a European company: “We can not always talk only about the European market and then only look nationally”. Nevertheless, the question arises, why apparently there were no suitable offers from the large landscape of young Berlin digital companies. “Maybe it was the call for tenders,” Bayaz suspects.
Government sees no hurdles for startups
“The chances of start-ups in public procurement procedures are still poor,” explains the Federal Association of German Startups. According to the survey in the “German Startup Monitor 2018”, public procurers make up only four percent of the revenue-generating customer groups of start-ups. In the Federal Ministry of Economics, however, one is aware of no problems. “The federal government sees no general differences in the cooperation of public agencies with start-ups compared to cooperation with established companies,” says the response to a small request from the Greens. In particular, it refers to the changes in public procurement law three years ago.
Whether these have brought improvements, however, is unclear. “The Federal Government has no information on how many contracts have been awarded since 2013 by the federal ministries and their subordinate authorities completely or partially to startups,” said the Federal Ministry of Economics. That the federal government has no data on the distribution of its procurement, show the lack of awareness of the importance of their own procurement, criticized Danyal Bayaz, startup representative of the parliamentary group Alliance 90 / The Greens. “The public sector should play a role model and steering function.” Again and again, the state complains that there is too little capital for innovative entrepreneurs in Germany. “But where he has a lever as in public tenders he does not use them,” says Bayaz. “This is negligent” “Demand and reality are at the opening of the procurement procedures for start-ups far apart,” says Fritsche. In order to create more transparency, the state should indicate the assignment of orders to start-ups.
Czech developer specifically requested
In the case of the Bundestag app, however, there was apparently at least the effort to win start-ups for it. So 15 to 20 companies were specifically contacted and encouraged to participate. Even the ultimately successful contractor came into play. “We would never have applied ourselves, Ackee does not usually participate in public tenders,” says a spokeswoman. Whether and how many German start-ups also participated and what ultimately was the decisive factor for the Czechs, the Bundestag administration did not want to say.