Funny stories: According to the report, BAG muddled through the vaccination app

The report published on Monday referred to incomprehensible services charged and conflicts of interest in the award without a formal procedure.

In particular, the SFAO criticized the lack of transparency in the cost calculation for the purchase by the FOPH of a registration, registration and appointment system with vaccination documentation at a total cost of CHF 11.15 million.

In particular, in the second half of 2021, the service providers – taking into account two initially affiliated companies – charged services worth about two million francs, which was “incomprehensible” given the functionalities developed during this period. However, the BAG did not question this imbalance between service provision and billing.

Accounting practice incomprehensible

Flat rates of about half a million francs each were billed over several months – though the services would be contractually billed according to workload. There too, the BAG did not justify the billing practice in an understandable way, the SFAO wrote.

In addition, it was not possible to check the content of the invoiced services because there were no work reports, although the suppliers were contractually obliged to provide them. “The BAG never asked for this, so that de facto no substantive check took place.”

The SFAO also raised a potential conflict of interest. Because the position of Head of Digitization Covid-19 had to be filled in the short term, an external employee was recruited as a mandate.

He did know the director of one of the two service providers. At the time of the test, the two business partners were in outside companies. It was not clear from the discussions with the BAG whether this “apparently existing conflict of interest” had been made public.

BAG refers to urgency

In a statement, the BAG admitted that given the crisis situation and urgency, their action was not in line with usual processes. The BAG therefore decided to award the contract privately.

“With the usual procurement process, the system would only be ready about three months later,” writes the BAG. Because a solution could be activated quickly, the vaccination campaign accelerated and many people quickly had access to the vaccination.

However, the authority rejected individual criticisms. For example, the BAG referred to a written statement from the former head of the digital transformation department, in which he confirmed that the client had already informed him during the first interview about networking with the general manager of one of the two service providers.

According to the statement, the authority also does not share the suspicion that the BAG has been charged for incomprehensible services for the second half of 2021.

According to the BAG, the supplier has implemented the adjustments from the vaccination advice and other contract elements during this period during ongoing work. And despite a short campaign delay, all services were delivered reliably and on time. “The chosen strategy turned out to be successful, the operation was always guaranteed,” writes the BAG.

The SFAO’s recommendations have already been largely implemented by the BAG, it said. For future crisis management, it will be important to involve the public procurement experts more closely in the crisis organisation.

SFAO puts the criticism into perspective

The SFAO did not comment on the BAG’s statement. However, she wrote in the report that the omissions and weaknesses in tenders had to be put into perspective in the context of the extraordinary situation at the time, which was difficult to plan for.

In fact, it had to be done quickly when the BAG started procurement and development in mid-October 2020. The developed application was already activated by the cantons involved in mid-January 2021 and was productive.

The BAG’s contractual obligations have now ended, the authority emphasizes. The cantons had the option to take over the systems if necessary. (sda)