Juicy border protection tender set to tickle IT firms' fancies

According to unofficial Puls Biznesu sources, a tender for the land borders protection system will be announced this summer that is likely to arouse the interest of all country’s largest IT firms, including the two largest, Prokom and ComputerLand. The project's budget is set to come to around zł.235 million, while the Border Guard will receive a further zł.638 million (EUR 142 million) from the EU Schengen Fund, the bulk of which will be devoted to developing the necessary computer network. "The principles of the Schengen Fund do not oblige a country to co-invest in the project, but we do not exclude such a possibility," said Jarosław Skowroński, a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Interior and Administration. The Headquarters of the Border Guard are likely to be responsible for picking the winner of the tender, but according to the newspaper's sources another body will also be involved in the process, namely the Authority for the Implementation of the Border Cooperation Program, a division of the Foreign Affairs Ministry. This same body was also responsible for the overseeing of the tender for the protection of the country's sea border, which ended in controversy. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 3) A.F.