Passport to nowhere
The processing of vital personal papers suffered a major set-back following a meltdown in the computer system controlling the country's high-tech documentation office, the Centrum Personalizacji Dokumentow (CPD).
The disaster followed a brave, and in hindsight, some might say questionable decision in September to cancel Hewlett Packard's maintenance contract in favor of a firm that reportedly didn't specialize in either IT or information services.
In fact the new firm, Polska Wytwornia Papierow Wartosciowych (PWPW), is said to be so poor at its job that the center is constantly fining them. "We have never had such a problem before," admitted CPD's director, Nikodem Przesmycki.
A source at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration, which oversees the center, was less forgiving. "It's amazing," the high-ranking official told Rzeczpospolita, "PWPW has never serviced such systems before and now when they have to cope with a breakage, they are helpless."
PWPW's spokesperson Krzysztof Rak said: "Last week our computer system broke down. However, it was quickly fixed. It is untrue that PWPW is not capable of fixing its malfunctions because we did fix it."
Possibly the only light note for the documentation center is the area of costs. Because CPD is constantly levying the firm with penalties there are virtually zero costs for the documentation center.
Of course the flip side of this situation is that there may be no documents either. (J.T.)
The disaster followed a brave, and in hindsight, some might say questionable decision in September to cancel Hewlett Packard's maintenance contract in favor of a firm that reportedly didn't specialize in either IT or information services.
In fact the new firm, Polska Wytwornia Papierow Wartosciowych (PWPW), is said to be so poor at its job that the center is constantly fining them. "We have never had such a problem before," admitted CPD's director, Nikodem Przesmycki.
A source at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration, which oversees the center, was less forgiving. "It's amazing," the high-ranking official told Rzeczpospolita, "PWPW has never serviced such systems before and now when they have to cope with a breakage, they are helpless."
PWPW's spokesperson Krzysztof Rak said: "Last week our computer system broke down. However, it was quickly fixed. It is untrue that PWPW is not capable of fixing its malfunctions because we did fix it."
Possibly the only light note for the documentation center is the area of costs. Because CPD is constantly levying the firm with penalties there are virtually zero costs for the documentation center.
Of course the flip side of this situation is that there may be no documents either. (J.T.)
