Covid Scotland: Sturgeon Pressured for Vaccine Passport App Cost Increase –

NICOLA Sturgeon has borne the skyrocketing costs of the Scottish government to apply for a passport for vaccinations, insisting that failure to act would be costly.

The vaccine certification scheme, which requires proof of exemption to enter certain environments such as night clubs, was initially estimated at £ 600,000.

But over the weekend, the app’s actual figure was £ 6.8 million.

Danish IT firm Netcompany won a contract in October to develop the app before Deputy Prime Minister John Swinney confirmed that costs had risen to £ 1.2 million in November, with the company expanding it cost £ 2.4 million before doubling costs.

US company Jumio has been commissioned to design facial recognition technology for the app, but costs have also increased from £ 3.3 million to £ 4.4 million.

The Scottish government said that the requirement to prove a negative Covid test as part of the national surveillance program was partly responsible for the increased costs.

Tess White, MSP Tory, insisted on Ms Sturgeon for the cost increase.

Speaking to Holyrood, White warned that the budget has risen to “more than ten times the originally planned cost of £ 600,000”.

“Can the Prime Minister explain how costs can increase in this way and does the Scottish Government believe this represents good value for the taxpayer?

In response, Sturgeon said: “I think the decisions we have made to prevent further escalation of Covid cases will show that over time it has been worth it, as the damage caused by Covid is even greater than it is. he is. .

“Obviously, we are going to address all these issues and force governments to respond, and this is a fair and appropriate public investigation.”

But when someone had it we shouldn’t have taken any special precautions, in which case we should have avoided the cost of vaccine passports and vaccine passports, you should also consider what implications this has for potentially higher cases, more people hospitalized and perhaps more people who could become seriously ill in terms of

“All of this has a cost and it’s not just a financial cost.”

Source: Herald Scotland

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