More than 20 projects with a budget of 110 million euro are going to be put out for tender by Information Society S.A. until next April. Stavros Asthenidis, CEO of the company, which is the driving force for the implementation of the projects and the strategy of the Ministry of Digital Governance, managing 146 public works contracts and state aid actions totalling 2 billion euro, reported to “Kathimerini” that “this number will increase even further in the following period, if we take into account the projects of the ‘Digital Transformation Bible’, which are going to be assigned to Information Society, as well as the projects of the Ministry of Digital Governance which will be integrated and financed by the Recovery Fund, part of which will be implemented by Information Society”.
The list of projects includes the provision of teleconferencing services in courts and penitentiary establishments, and the provision of information on the progress of the case lists and exhibits of the courts, the creation of an information system for managing requests by citizens, businesses, public services and other entities through the online portal of the Hellenic Data Protection Authority, and the digitization of the records of the Hellenic Military Geographical Service (HMGS) of the Ministry of National Defence.
Mr Asthenidis stated also that the upgrade of the platform for the management of debts of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises and freelancers is also under development, as is the implementation of the meteorological support system of the Civil Protection Service related to the timely and accurate forecast of severe weather phenomena and the Information System for the Licensing of RES Projects (PSAPE).
The company has also completed the tender for the creation of the software that enables the tracking of the supply chain for COVID-19 vaccines. “We monitor the vaccines in real time, from the time they are exported from the supplier company’s factory until they are delivered to the vaccination centres throughout the country, while at the same time considering along with the Ministry of Digital Governance what is the most suitable method for providing information to the citizens telephonically”, Mr Asthenidis explained.
Regarding “Syzefxis II”, which has a budget of 620 million euro and will connect 34,000 public bodies through telecommunications, last November it secured the required approvals for the 35 invitations announced by Information Society S.A. One month ago, the latter started implementing six infrastructure sub-projects under “Syzefxis II” with the contractors. “After almost eight years of operation and 41 meetings, the Cross-Party Committee, which was established in 2012, completed its admittedly extremely demanding work, in the midst of difficult and unprecedented conditions in the country”, Mr Asthenidis noted. The project, which was designed in the period 2010-2013, had to face a significant delay due to the legal objections that were filed, the frequent elections until 2019 (when the project was contracted), as well as the disruptions in public administration up to that point. “Each time the competent minister changed, the project, due to its size, had to be re-introduced and we had to prove its necessity again, which was not always easy”, the head of Information Society mentioned.
The market has also turned its attention to the project for the upgrade of the “Transparency” programme (publication of public administration decisions), whose tender will be re-launched in the near future. Bids were submitted for the project by two interested parties, which could not be completed because of significant deficiencies in the documentation, Mr Asthenidis reported.
