In the dispute over the award of a contract for a nationwide video conference system at Hesse’s 2,000 schools, the state has to accept a legal defeat. The procurement of a data protection-compliant video conference system could not be based on the existing tender documents. The Senate of the Higher Regional Court (OLG) Frankfurt announced on Thursday (Az. 11 Verg 6/21).
The country must revise its tender documents. As announced by the OLG, the procedure has been reset to the status of the tender. This order can not be contested. The request for review by a video conference system provider who was unsuccessful in the first, illegal tendering procedure was therefore successful.
The award chamber had already considered the award to be inadmissible, which the Senate has now confirmed: One of the core elements of the advertised service is a minimum number of simultaneously supported video conference rooms (these represent the classrooms), in which all participants in class must be visible in the web browser. The reference of the bidder, who in the estimation of the Land should have been awarded the contract, did not deal with a comparable service.
Hundreds of thousands of participants at the same time
The video conferencing system is intended to ensure reliable distance teaching in compliance with data protection regulations if face-to-face teaching cannot take place. 200,000 students should be able to take part at the same time, at peak times even 450,000. The responsible Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs of the State of Hesse has announced that it will implement the requirements from the court decision in the Europe-wide new tender.
A spokesman for the ministry said that the procedure will be quickly restarted at the beginning of 2022: “We aim to ensure that schools can use the nationwide video conference system by the beginning of the next school year at the latest.” The schools will not suffer any disadvantage as a result of the delay, as they will be able to use existing video conferencing systems. (with material from the dpa)
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