Czech Developers Create Free Website That Minister Wanted to Spend 16 Million Euros On, Minister Dismissed

Czech developers created a free website over the weekend, which a minister aimed to spend 16 million euros on. The volunteers deemed the government order "useless" and simply donated the service to the government, highlighting the unjustifiable expenses.

A group of Czech developers prepared and donated a state service to the government that had been ordered from another company. They did this as a protest against the Transport Ministry's "extravagances." In their view, officials had sealed contracts at unreasonably high prices.

This story reached the Czech Prime Minister, who subsequently dismissed the Transport Minister.

Everything began with a competition announced for the creation of a program for obtaining electronic permits for driving on toll highways. About 16 million euros was planned for the creation of the online shop and an iOS and Android application. A four-year contract was sealed with the contractor Asseco Central Europe. There was no open competition.

Such a government order caused outrage within the Czech IT community. Tomáš Vondrášek, the owner of Actum Digital, called the competition "absurd" and added that the same work could be done in a few days if desired. "I want no one to treat our collective funds as the government is doing right now," said the developer.

Vondrášek called on all local developers to unite and hold a hackathon to create an analogy of the service from the government order. They planned to accomplish everything in a week at the Actum Digital office in Prague and then simply transfer it to the Czech government as a gift and an example of how money derived from citizens' taxes is spent.

On January 24, 60 people gathered at Vondrášek's office for the #Znamkamarada hackathon and began working. By Sunday evening, they had created fairznamka.cz, the platform, and donated it to the state, which met all requirements intended for the 16 million euros.

During the hackathon, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš came to observe the developers’ work. "I think politicians are simply shocked by what has happened," Vondrášek told reporters.

By Monday, January 27, the website started working in test mode. The government offered to pay the developers, but later accepted the gift. In this story, the Transport Minister Vladimír Kremlík was dismissed over such a high amount for a state order.