The global consulting company Deloitte, the first Croatian open source platform developer, Omega Software, and the only major Croatian software company created by the merger, IT Systems – New Technologies, are competing for an unprecedented technology project in the government sector in Croatia. On Friday, the City of Zagreb received three bids from these companies which want to draft the blockchain technology application strategy for the capital, the first such strategy in Croatia, reports Večernji List on January 29, 2019.
The city estimated the project costs at 1.5 million kuna. Although the price was not the only criterion, the difference in prices offered are substantial. The lowest bid was submitted by Deloitte, at 965,090 kuna plus the VAT. IT Systems – New Technologies want 1.47 million kuna plus the VAT, while Omega Software asks for 1.48 million kuna.
Olivera Majić, deputy mayor of Zagreb, briefly explained that the city must proceed with the implementation of the blockchain. “This is part of a wider transformation of business processes in the city government which is proceeding very well.”
The tender documentation explains that the capital has noted a problem which will force all towns in Croatia, but also the central government itself, to implement the blockchain technology in the near future. It claims that, without blockchain, it is impossible to keep any official documents for a period longer than five years or possibly ten. And the law often demands documents be kept longer. That is not a problem with paper documents but is with the digital ones.
The City of Zagreb warns that electronic documents are protected by e-signature or e-stamp, or with a form of a digital certificate, and all digital certificates have a short and limited validity period. As an example, the Fina certificates are valid for two years, and AKD’s for five. After the validity of these certificates expires, the credibility of each e-document can be called into question. The city authorities believe that blockchain is the solution.
The decision on the winner of the tender will be made in the next three months, and the deadline for the strategy to be drafted is four months after the winning bid is selected. This means that by autumn, Zagreb will become the first town in Croatia and the first administration body in the country to have its own blockchain strategy.
The tender documentation also states that blockchain will not only be used for archiving but also for monitoring business processes, and there is a possibility that it will be applied in a range of other activities as well.
Translated from Večernji List (reported by Bernard Ivezić).
More Zagreb news can be found in our special section.
