US irked after left out of Czech military tenders ISN February 1, 2005 http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=10693
ISN SECURITY WATCH (01/02/05) - The US has criticized the Czech Defense Ministry for skirting public tenders for over US$100 million worth of military equipment in deals that seems to have upset some of the country’s NATO allies, the respected business daily Hospodarske noviny reported on Tuesday in a front-page spread. The daily said the Czech Defense Ministry had opted against an open competition for two major purchases announced at the end of last year: the Saab-made RBS 70 Air Defense Missile System at a cost of more than a billion crowns (US$43 million) and three Ericsson-made weapons-locating systems for more than 1.5 billon crowns (US$65 million). NATO has no formal regulations that deal with purchases, which are left up to national legislation. In the Czech Republic, the law on tenders allows the army to avoid issuing a public call if strategic military equipment, vital for the country’s defense, is at stake. In a letter to the Defense Ministry, the US embassy in Prague expressed its concern over the two sales, but would not comment further on the contents of the letter. An unnamed diplomat was quoted as saying that the dispute concerned the lack of a tender. In an interview with the newspaper, shadow Defense Minister Petr Necas of the Civic Democratic Party claimed that the US was not alone in its criticism of the purchasing process. After specifically mentioning France as particularly irked, he went on to say that the Czech Defense Ministry had developed a “tragic reputation” among NATO allies. Ministry spokesman Andrej Círtek denied that any law had been broken and said the Swedish firms had been chosen only after several studies, which included outside experts, had concluded that their systems best suited the army. The dispute follows a hotly contested competition over fighter planes, which the US lost in 2003 when the Czechs decided to lease Gripens, made by Sweden's Saab and Britain's BAE Systems, instead of buying used Lockheed Martin F-16s. At the time, the US ambassador Craig Stapleton said the choice could impact US-Czech relations and commented that “NATO does not fly Gripens”. Despite the disappointment over the country’s military purchases, the Czech Republic is not yet in Washington’s doghouse. On 21 January, the Czech parliament approved the extended presence of around 100 military police officers in Iraq, where they are training their Iraqi counterparts in the south of the country. The decision comes at the same time as other countries, such as Ukraine and Poland, have either decided to withdraw or reduce their forces. (By Jeremy Druker in Prague) http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=10693 __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? 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