Greek Ministry of Defense on digital training of conscripts and the purchase of tablets

The Greek Ministry of Defense is purchasing 50,000 tablets, the total project budget is EUR 50,201,132.00 excluding 24% VAT.

What are they planning to do with these tablets and digital training of recruits? The Ministry of National Defense and Digital Management provides clarification regarding this. Hardware technical support covers 50,000 devices for three years throughout the country.

The project is funded by the Recovery Fund through the Department of Digital Government and does not absorb Department of Defense funds earmarked for the military. Training is carried out as part of the increase in the level of digital skills of European citizens – an indicator measured annually at the European level using the DESI index (Digital Economy and Society Index).

The project “Program for the improvement of digital qualifications of military personnel” is being implemented on the basis of a program agreement dated 10-03-22 (Αρ. Πρωτ. ΚτΠ Μ.Α.Ε 5408 / 31-3-22) between the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Digital Management and Information Society, as amended on 5-01-23 and 20-03-23

Digital skills training event approved and included in ΕΣΑΑ projects ), it was approved by the EU Council in 2021 ((https://greece20.gov.gr/to-plires-sxedio/) .

According to the approved plan, the implementation decision concerns the supply of 50,000 tablets, not 10,000. The total budget of the project (after two amendments) is 50,201,132.00 euros excluding 24% VAT and has nothing to do with publications that mention amounts 72 million euros, writes newsbeast.gr.

The cost of the tablets is up to 500 euros each, i.e. 25,000,000 euros (+VAT 24%), and this includes telecommunications fees for connecting the devices in question to the Internet. It is noted that the above equipment must comply with the regulations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (a disabled camera, GPS, Internet access control, etc.).

The devices will be given to recruits for use throughout the project. The project is expected to train at least 100,000 recruits within three years. This number will increase as the equipment and educational content becomes the property of the Ministry of National Defense and can be used to train other recruits after the end of the project.

Hardware technical support covers 50,000 devices for three years across the territory with a response time of up to 6 hours during business hours or the next business day. If we subtract the costs of the tablet, the maintenance and advertising of the project, then the costs are 238.28 euros (excluding VAT) for each conscript (budget 23,828,632 euros per 100,000 conscripts), that is, the cost of the project is absolutely reasonable.

As for the Digital Skills Program, recruits who already have basic or advanced knowledge in a particular subject can benefit from it, as the program includes a combination of courses covering several digital subjects at different levels of knowledge.

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