The installation of a $70m computer systems due to be supplied by Compagnie des Machines Bull SA to the Polish Ministry of Finance is at least one year behind schedule, according to reports in the Warsaw Voice. The contract to supply the DPX/2 Unix system and Zenith Data Systems personal computer-based Poltax system, which will administer value-added tax, income tax and corporate tax collection, was awarded to Bull in July 1990 with the bulk of funds provided by French banks. with value added tax introduced in Poland on July 5 and the Poltax system unlikely to be up and running until the beginning of next year, some of the country’s 320 local and 24 regional internal revenues offices have opted to develop their own computer system in-house as a temporary measure after a plea from Warsaw tax office managers to delay the introduction of the tax until January 1994 was rejected, according to the report. Much of the delay has been attributed to government prevarication regarding the specifics of the implementation of the tax itself rather then any holds-ups in the development of the software, but costs resulting from the delay will be covered by Bull. The Warsaw Voice detailed complaints over the project’s implementation – in particular the complexity of new forms – attributed to unidentified sources in regional tax offices.
