SIS II competition voided by Public Procurement Office

The competition for the Polish SIS II, worth zl.50 million, has been a source of controversy from the beginning. According to some companies, the selection of a competition procedure instead of a standard tender was illegal. Last Friday, the Public Procurement Office (UZP) ruled that the selected procedure was indeed inappropriate since the project included the supply of servers and, according to the law, it is obligatory to organize a tender for the supply of equipment to public institutions. The winner of the competition was HP but other participants, including Wasko, Prokom and IBM, complained about irregularities which occurred during the procedure and also expressed concern about the evaluation of the offers. The delay in building of the Polish part of SIS II may not cause a delay in Poland's entry to the Schengen area, however, since it may implement a transitional solution proposed by Portugal, a system called SISone4ALL. (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 4-5) E.B.