Objections are expected to be quickly raised by the three consortia that passed the technical evaluation phase and the two that were dropped from the process for a 515-million-euro tender to produce new IDs and other security forms, such as passports.
The bidders have until Friday to file objections but the tender from the Ministry of Civil Protection predicts that they will be examined immediately so that the financial bids will be opened in coming weeks. It seems that a contractor will be selected within the next month.
Yesterday, the results of the technical evaluation were handed over to the five candidate consortia, which shows that two of them will be out of contention. The joint venture of the French Thales (controlling Gemalto), Quest group (Unisystems) joint venture and the Japanese Toppan Printing, which currently manages the passport issuance system, remains in the race.
As has the joint venture of Germany’s Veridos with OTE and Byte. The third group is the Belgian joint venture of Zetes (which controls Israel’s Pitkit Zetes Smartech that manages Israel's security printing system) with Space Hellas.
The initial goal of the Ministry of Civil Protection, but also of the Ministry of Digital Government involved in digital identification, was to issue the new IDs in the first half of 2022.
The new IDs will be in the form of a credit card, will include an electronic chip, a color photo and the digital signature of the holder. Because they will support the eIDAS technology standard promoted by the European Commission, they will not only act as identification documents but also as keys for online transactions with the public or private sector.
The sponsor of the competition will undertake the issuing of not only the new IDs, but also a number of other security forms, from driver's licenses to special cards for immigrants, etc. It will spend more than 100 million euros to set up the technological equipment in a building of the Greek Police on Syggrou Avenue, but also for the installation of remote machines for issuing security forms in police stations, embassies, ministries (for diplomas), etc.
The cost to citizens for the new ID cards is set at 10 euros. The final cost of the fee may be lower if the contractor offers a discount compared to the original budget.
The contract will be for ten years, with the possibility of its being extended by five more years, with the contractor initially financing the installation of the infrastructure and then collecting the fee from the issuance of new security forms.
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