According to Margus Arm, head of the procurement committee and Deputy Director General of the Estonian Information System Authority, in spite of prior negotiations, it was not possible to conclude a contract with the Belgian undertaking which submitted a tender in the public procurement for a number of reasons – the tender did not meet the expectations and exceeded the intended budget. The tender submitted also revealed that the purposes of the public procurement had remained unclear to the participants in the process.
‘We intended to find a provider of a comprehensive service who would create a new national Mobile-ID solution for using for public as well as private sector e-services. The tenderer did not, however, offer such solution and only focussed on public e-services. The tenderer did not rule out providing the service to the private sector, for example, to online banks, but that would have called for further developments of the e-services and negotiations with the owners of the e-service. In this case, however, it is not possible to estimate the actual costs or the number of users. The tenderer also only offered support for the service for the duration of the framework contract, which was also not what we wished for,’ says Margus Arm to highlight the main shortcomings of the tender.
Arm confirms that a solution is being worked on with partner authorities, which would ensure the continuation of the current Mobile-ID and, in parallel, a novel national m-ID tool will be developed which would also be compatible with the planned future developments of the European Union e-identity.
Margit Ratnik, Head of the Identity and Status Bureau of the Police And Border Guard Board, claimed that even though the contract with the current Mobile-ID service provider, SK ID Solution AS (SK), will expire next summer, on 30 June, nothing will immediately change for the users. ‘All Mobile-IDs that have been issued so far will continue to function until the end of their five-year validity period and will still be usable for e-services,’ explained Ratnik, adding that the Police And Border Guard Board is supporting the Information System Authority to find the best e-ID solution for the state that would offer an alternative authentication option for people in addition to the ID card.
In January 2020, the Information System Authority and Police And Border Guard Board started making preparations for a public procurement for the new Mobile-ID. They intended to find a novel solution which would be SIM-card free and function continuously on a mobile device. For this purpose, a procurement process with a competitive dialogue was organised, which involved first examining the possibilities and interest of the market. In September, two market participants were invited to take part in the final round of the public procurement – SK ID Solutions AS and Belgian Mobile ID – with the latter submitting the only final tender.
Helen Uldrich
Communication Manager of the Information System Authority
Leana Loide
Press Officer of the Police And Border Guard Board
