Swiss Assembly Wants Access To Source Code Of e-Gov Software

Thirteen members of the Swiss parliament are asking the government to demand the right to adapt the source code of GEVER, the record management system commissioned by the government and under development since 2008. The MPs say this will help to end the government's lock-in by proprietary software firms.

In May, Swiss newspapers reported that the 100 million Swiss franc (about 80 million euro) GEVER project threatened to fail, depending on the outcome of a conflict over the renewal of licences with an Austrian software firm involved in the project. The federal authorities paid 9 million Swiss francs (about 7 million euro) to renew licences for the proprietary software solution for the next two years, using an exception to bypass procurement rules, according to the Swiss newspaper Sonntags Blick.