A Government body (or related agency) needs a vendor to provide creative services, but its terms for the would-be-vendor, as expressed in the GeBiz portal has been criticized.
GeBIZ is a Government-to-business (G2B) Public eProcurement business centre where suppliers can conduct electronic commerce with the Singapore Government.
A designer Kelly Cheng sharing the advertisement for tender on her Facebook, took issue with the unnamed government agency’s demand for ‘UNLIMITED CHANGES‘ from the vendor.
Multiple Demands for Unlimited Changes for Design Services on Gebiz. As a designer, I Protest, Do you? Please share this post if you are against Unlimited Changes – Be the Change you want to see in the world.
Posted by Kelley Cheng on Sunday, 14 February 2016
She said, “As a designer, I Protest, Do you? Please share this post if you are against Unlimited Changes.”
Her post has been shared over 300 times. Others commenting on her post have also criticised the government agency which is procuring the service.
Tay Kheng Soon, a pioneer Singaporean architect and an adjunct professor at National University of Singapore said:
“These are retrograde procurement procedures emanating from a mindset based on street market practices inconsistent with an economy heading towards value creation. In such an economy intellectual and creative effort must be valued and respected if such effort is to grow. Those who continue street market practices should be re-educated. They have to see that their squeezing methods are counterproductive. In fact they are against new national interests!”
Genny Chia said that she used to bid for training projects via GeBiz as well, but have now given up.
“I wonder where do we stand when it comes to having ‘fair trade’ over here. If they refuse to spearhead by reviewing such clauses, there is no way our workforce can move the notch in this country, as everyone sees this as a regular practice. They also need to understand that among ‘cheap’, ‘good’ and ‘fast’, they are only entitled to 2 of the 3. Not everything,” she said in frustration.
Cher Tan said that the Singapore Design Council should intervene and advise the procuring agency.
Andrew Pang said, “we want to be an IP Hub, yet we allow such stuff to be put up on GeBiz that is a total disregard of IP (intellectual property) and the creative profession.”
Jian Guo Chen said that he was participating in a tender with similar conditions. He feels that the government agencies attitude now is “if you are not happy with the conditions then don’t participate. With the economic climate now, there were many many smaller companies willing to participate”.