Ministry of Communications wants to ban government agencies to renew licenses of foreign software

Communications Minister Nikolai Nikiforov

Minkomsvyaz intends to prohibit government agencies and state companies not only to purchase new, but also to extend previously acquired licenses of foreign software, Vedomosti reports with reference to the report of the Minister of Communications Nikolai Nikiforov on import substitution software.

Recall that on November 16, 2015, Dmitry Medvedev signed government decree No. 1236 , according to which government agencies are prohibited from purchasing foreign software if there is a Russian equivalent. The decree came into force on January 1, 2016.

At the same time, there was a loophole in the document about service payments, which was actively used by state-owned companies. Through it, it was possible to extend the previously acquired licenses for foreign software, even if there are analogues within the country.

So, before the New Year holidays, Rostelecom announced the purchase from Microsoft of licenses for previously acquired software in the amount of 1.26 billion rubles. The state operator does not purchase new licenses, but, in fact, extends the ones previously acquired in 2013. At the same time, a company representative pointed out that the licenses are perpetual, and this gives the company time to “think about switching to Russian equivalents”.

Apparently, the Ministry of Communications and Mass Media made the decision to not give companies time to think. According to the officials, this loophole in the regulatory and legal framework leads to the Russian under-investment of billions of rubles annually, which, in turn, slows down and complicates further import substitution.

According to the ministry, now the share in the procurement of foreign software is 77%, while domestic - only 23%. At the same time, in 2015, the number of contracts for the purchase of domestic software, compared with 2014, doubled.

The report of Nikolai Nikiforov was planned to be considered today, January 26, but he was excluded from the agenda of the government meeting. Sources "Vedomosti" do not exclude that this issue will be raised in the near future.

Although the motivation of the ministry to force state organizations to switch to domestic software is understandable, excessive haste in this matter can lead to a collapse. Thus, representatives of Rostelecom indicated that in a few years to transfer a huge company to other software, build all the processes and retrain employees without huge losses, it is physically impossible. Also, the use of outdated software poses a serious threat to the information security of companies. At the same time, almost all government structures are characterized by excessive cumbersomeness and inertia of the apparatus, which excludes scenarios for a quick and painless transition to other software.