Illustrative photo – Headquarters of the Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic in Tychonova Street in Prague on a picture taken on June 8, 2017.
Prague – The Ministry of Defense is still dealing with deliveries of MADR mobile radars from Israel and ballistic vests for soldiers. The status of orders was discussed today by deputies from the parliamentary defense committee in a closed part of the meeting. Defense Minister Jana Černochová (ODS) also announced before that that the Ministry of Defense filed a cassation complaint against the decision of the Brno Regional Court, which upheld the fine imposed by the Office for the Protection of Economic Competition for errors in the tender for army helicopters.
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According to the minister, matters regarding military tests are still not finished with MADR mobile radars. “We are pressuring the Israeli side to quickly remove some of the shortcomings. We firmly believe that we will reach an agreement with them within the terms that are there,” she told reporters. She did not say what the specific shortcomings were, pointing to the fact that the results of military examinations are not public.
In the case of ballistic vests, according to Černochová, the ministry received very high-quality samples. “Unfortunately, some of the resistance tests and the inspection of the materials by the inspection institution of our department have now been found to be not identical to those samples,” she said. According to her, the ministry is negotiating with the supplier with the aim of resolving the matter. “Ballistic protection is the basis of soldiers' equipment,” she added.
The ministry filed a cassation complaint against the February verdict of the Brno Regional Court confirming a penalty of 550 million crowns due to errors in the purchase of army helicopters at the beginning of March. “As the Minister of Defense, I wanted to exhaust all legal means,” Černochová told the deputies.
According to the decision of the antimonopoly office last year, the ministry committed an offense by illegally concluding a contract for the purchase of multi-purpose army helicopters with the US government earlier , before deciding on the objections of the Italian company Leonardo, which is a manufacturer of, among other things, army helicopters. The decision was then confirmed by the chairman of the office. However, the Ministry insisted that it proceeded correctly, according to it, the contract was negotiated directly by the governments of both countries, and the company, which was not contacted, could not interfere in the contract. The ministry still paid the fine in 2021.
