Recently introduced eIDs are being produced by a private company, formerly headed by Deputy Research Minister Nicodemos Damianou, which was awarded the contract without going through a tender process, an audit report published on Tuesday said.

In October 2024, the deputy ministry approved the awarding of the project, estimated at €3.85 million, to the private company [JCC] without there being an open bidding process, auditor-general Andreas Papaconstantinou said.

The report investigates the procedures followed by the ministry during the process of awarding the tender for the issuance of the first 100,000 eIDs, which was ultimately signed in January 2025, and the eIDs first launched.

“During the direct negotiation, the company [JCC] submitted an offer equal to the estimated cost, i.e. €3.9 million. The negotiation with [JCC] resulted in a reduction of €0.5 per ID, i.e. a total reduction of €50,000, and a final contract amount of €3.85 million,” the audit service wrote.

Auditor general Papaconstantinou said the deputy ministry had justified its decision for selecting JCC as the official service provider by claiming there had been no other operators with the required certification.

The audit office said it had considered there were no other certified competitors willing to take part in an open tender process, and acknowledged that the ministry had contacted potential bidders without any apparent interest, but stressed the eID project was highly costly and required specific technical infrastructure.

However, the report highlighted that the direct awarding of tenders is only possible given that “no reasonable alternative [is available] and that the absence of competition is not the result of an artificial limitation.”