Paris (AFP)

The Secretary of State in charge of digital Cédric O estimated Tuesday that the development of the "StopCovid" application, which has since become "TousAntiCovid" and which is the subject of an investigation by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) for "favoritism" , was done "within the rules".

Cédric O disputed in Le Parisien to be "worried" after the announcement Friday by AFP of the opening of this investigation, which follows a report from June 2020 from the Anticor association.

"If things were done in a hurry, they were done in the rules", pleads the Secretary of State.

"I assume that we went quickly, because it saved lives. And I am happy that this is a sovereign project, which does not depend on Apple or Google," he said. He insists.

"The only interest pursued was the general interest. I will not apologize for having deployed StopCovid! That being said, it is normal that if justice asks questions, it can get all the answers," he added. this member of the government.

Sunday, on franceinfo, he had already underlined that "the bill + State of health emergency + allowed us to go much faster than a call for tenders which would have taken several months", and that moreover Outscale was the "the only company" to "be labeled" to carry out this type of mission with sufficient security.

Since September, the PNF has been investigating suspicions of favoritism for the benefit of a subsidiary of Dassault Systèmes, Outscale, responsible for maintaining the application, after Anticor reported in spring 2020.

In a letter sent to the public prosecutor's office in June 2020, the association estimated that the paid maintenance carried out by Outscale for the application should have been the subject of a call for tenders, in view of the amounts involved.

While a parliamentary report in November estimated the overall cost of this application at 6.5 million euros from the beginning of June to the end of October, Cédric O estimated Tuesday in Le Parisien that the application which has since become "TousAntiCovid" has cost "approximately 9 million euros all inclusive "since its launch in June 2020.

"For such an application, it is very inexpensive, in particular because the companies which worked on the development did it for free: the German application, it is 20 million euros of development and 3 million euros. euros per month, for a similar efficiency ", assures the Secretary of State.

© 2021 AFP