Prague, Sept 14 (CTK) – The Czech Defence Ministry wants to buy more arms from the state firms it controls and at the same time partially cut off private armament makers from contracts, daily Pravo writes yesterday referring to a document Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky (ANO) has sent to the government.
Pravo writes that billions of crowns are at stake.
The document that Pravo has at its disposal says the valid law on public procurement much complicates the work of the ministry that will have to more often apply an exception from the law that makes it possible not to launch tenders for purchases aimed to ensure the country’s security.
“There are firms within Czech industry that already cooperate in supplies for the Czech military, but they are private entities that mainly focus on maximisation of profit and minimisation of costs,” the document says.
The ministry, fearing the security situation in Ukraine and the Middle East, wants to fundamentally change its acquisition policy, Pravo writes.
The ministry wants to use more its own forces in the fields of the service and production of armoured vehicles, planes and helicopters and in the training of soldiers without protracted tenders, using the capacities of four state military companies, the document writes.
This has already been happening, Pravo writes referring to its information. A couple of weeks ago, for instance, the ministry entrusted the training of the air force personnel worth 1.2 billion crowns to the state company LOM Prague.
“We are processing tonnes of paper of tender documents while our opponents are not sleeping and they engage in massive armament,” Stropnicky wrote in a commentary for Wednesday’s issue of Pravo.
The four state companies established by the Defence Ministry are the Military Repair Company (VOP), the Aircraft Repair Company (VOP), the Military Technical Institute (VTU) and the Military Research Institute (VVU).
Andor Sandor, former head of the military intelligence, told Pravo that the prepared steps are correct because the same rules cannot apply to the purchase of potatoes and military hardware.
“I believe that the ministry’s effort is headed in the right direction because without it, the military will simply end up badly,” Sandor said.
($1=24.021 crowns)
ms/t/hol
