Deputy Innovation Minister Nikodemos Damianou said on Monday, September 2, that the state will introduce digital ID cards next year.
Meanwhile, it has also emerged that the deputy minister is mulling the possibility of canceling the controversial contract for the digitization of e-justice.
Decisions on the latest issues should be made by mid-September, the minister said.
Regarding digital ID, the minister said, “the best way to explain it is to compare it to scanning a COVID passport.”
“It will work in a similar way,” the minister said, “as a first step, digital access to ID cards, driving licenses and vehicle inspections will be provided,” Damianu said.Later, it will be possible to link other documents to this data, for example, football fan cards.
“We are collaborating with the Greek government digitalization services to become the first two countries in the EU to use the principle of reciprocity in the digital identity system,” Damianou said.The ultimate goal of the project is the introduction throughout the EU of a “digital wallet” - a digital identity that allows the user to confirm who they are and other personal information. It will be used both online and offline for public and private services across the EU.
In regards to the troubled e-justice rollout, the ministry will decide within two weeks whether to terminate the contract with the designated service provider following a year-long rollout that prompted leading legal experts to label the entire venture a failure.
According to the original contract, the pilot version of the e-justice system was to be operational by the end of 2021.
Damianu remained silent on the issue for months after repeated unsuccessful attempts to get the system running again.
“We now have data on the number of bugs and the types of fixes needed,” Damianu said.The minister added that corrections had been made, according to the vendor, and tests had been carried out by end users of the system to determine whether the corrections were adequate.
It was reported that the contract was likely to be terminated due to user dissatisfaction, but Damianu declined to comment, saying only that stakeholders on the committee formed after the initial system failure, i.e. the Bar Association and legal service officials, would soon take a "decisive position."
The minister said that it would not be difficult for the state to withdraw from the contract, since its terms are clear. The digitization of legal system services was initially ordered for €5.5 million, and so far the state has paid €1.2 million of this amount, the minister said.
“If the contract is terminated, the state will make sure to reimburse this amount, and this will not be difficult to do,” Damianos assured.The minister also said that the state is preparing to introduce the Digital Citizen mobile application in 2024, which will offer digital solutions to the population, while updating the central government access portal gov.cy.
The goal is for this app to gradually become a part of everyone's daily life.
Source: cyprus mail
