At a time when everything is moving at a dizzying pace, the decision as to which company to take over the management of the electronic transactions of the public sector moved at a snail's pace in the sense that it took four years to be taken.
The above transactions were managed by the company JCC PAYMENT SYSTEMS LTD since 2010 and through it citizens and companies paid electronically (including cards) various fees to the state. The transactions included payments of direct taxes and/or debts to the state, registration certificates, social security contributions, while independent employees and employers paid their contributions. Besides, payments were made for out-of-court traffic and other out-of-court tickets, while various other fees were also paid.
JCC is also known to citizens for paying various municipal taxes (sewerage, water supply, real estate fees, etc.).
Reference to the long period of time required to make a final decision on the tender under the title "Provision of Electronic Transaction Processing Services of the State", is made by the Tender Review Authority in its decision on the occasion of an appeal which was registered before it. Specifically, its decision states that "the relevant Tender was announced on 07.01.2022 and it took about four years to complete".
The Tender went through 40 stages until it was awarded in the sense that successive appeals were registered before the Revision Authority, some of which were accepted while others were rejected, including the last one, dated July 15, 2026.
The offer was finally awarded to the company "VivaBank Single Member Societe Anonyme". The first of the two lots of the offer amounted to €3,921,273 and the second to €172,942, compared to €4,447,630 (for the first lot) and €522,821 which was the offer of JCC PAYMENT SYSTEMS LTD for the second lot.
JCC invoked ten grounds for annulment of the decision (awarding the tender to the lowest bidder) but none of them were accepted by the Review Authority.
The contract has a duration of approximately 5.5 years, specifically 67 months.
Of these months, one concerns the technical preparation of the interconnection with the Payment Gateway (PGW) "Ariadne" and four to six months are reserved for the interconnection with the PGW "Ariadne".
The provision of electronic transaction processing services extends to 36 months from the date of commencement of the implementation of the scope of the Contract.
The notice also provided for the right to renew for 12 months and another 12 months thereafter.
The decision refers to appeals by tenderers and adds that taking into account three annulment decisions of the Tender Review Authority, an opinion was requested from the Legal Service.
According to the Tender Review Authority, the Tender Board, after studying all the new data and data before it, during its meeting dated 20.03.2026, decided to award the Tender to VivaBank Single Member Banking Societe Anonyme which was the company that succeeded the company Viva Payments Services S.A., whose offer had emerged as the most advantageous from a financial point of view.
By notifying the applicants of this decision, JCC filed an appeal dated 08.04.2026 which it lost.
All grounds for annulment are rejected as unfounded and unsubstantiated, the decision of the Revision Authority concludes.
It is noted that at some point the Tender was in danger of being blown up in the sense that it was evaluated whether there were grounds for its cancellation due to the fact that a considerable amount of time had passed since the announcement of the Tender, so the data, including the financial ones, were different.
However, despite any problems with the Competition for several years now, citizens and especially the younger generations are becoming more and more familiar with the progress of technology and, as in other countries, transactions are mainly processed electronically.
