Well Rainer, technically only half that number as they have double spaced their display of tenders; still a huge number to deal with though.

What puzzles me a bit, lots of very small value and easily obtained items throughout the list, many of which are consumable items found in typical lab operation that you require weekly/monthly to keep a lab running.  Doesn't make sense to have things like this "under evaluation" for a couple of years. Is it possible many of these are open tenders to allow for replacements on an ongoing basis?  Or, as you suggest, just very slow or overburdened.