And across the border in Prague, Czechoslovakia, IBM Corp claims a major contract from the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic to implement a computer-based system for tax administration and collection: the first systems integration contract won by IBM in the Czech Republic, it is for a Unix-based application to be installed and operational by the end of January, and IBM plans to sub-contract parts of the software development and translation work to three Czech software houses, PVT and Inorga of Prague and OKD of Ostrava; the fiscal reform that followed the Velvet Revolution of 1989 established a tax system embracing direct corporate and personal taxes as well as indirect taxes on spending, such as value-added tax, and IBM will establish a system throughout the Czech Republic for administering and collecting the taxes – over 2,500 PS/1 Pro computers – PS/1s! – fancy that! – will be used by tax officials and will be linked through RS/6000s in each level of the network at Ministry, regional and 218 local offices, which will be linked to the regional offices using public switched phone lines.
