The government of Slovenia on Tuesday awarded a tender for the localisation (translation) of the Covid-19 track and trace application developed for the German government. The Ministry of Public Administration hopes to have a Slovenian version of Germany’s open source software solution available for smartphones in mid-August.

The ministry published its EUR 40,000 call for localisation on 12 July, setting 15 July at noon as the deadline for submitting bids.

The government awarded a EUR 4026 contract to Rsteam, a software company in the capital Ljubljana. Announcing its selection, the ministry said the translated application will be submitted to the official app stores for Android and Apple devices.

Visual identity

According to press reports, the short notice drew criticism from app developers. The ministry says the work should not be too complicated, and also wants the app to be available as soon as possible.

The ministry said that as early as this week it would start testing the app. This week, it will also announce a visual identity, name and logo for the app.

Germany launched its coronavirus tracing app (Corona-Warn-App) in June, and made the code available as open source under the Apache licence. The app is available in German, English and Turkish. For Germany, the software development costs are EUR 20 million, and operating costs will be between EUR 2.5 and 3.5 million per month, according to a report by the AP news service.

More information:

Announcement of the award for the localisation (in Slovenian)
Announcement of the call for tender (in Slovenian)
Total Slovenia news item
Odbita do bita podcast (in Slovenian)