We All Landed in This Mess
The efforts of the government, unsuccessful to date but stubborn, to put across the purchase of the Gripen fighter airplanes still before the elections strengthen the suspicion that there is corruption behind this transaction.

The efforts of the government, unsuccessful to date but stubborn, to put across the purchase of the Gripen fighter airplanes still before the elections strengthen the suspicion that there is corruption behind this transaction. Respekt succeeded in obtaining the secret contract on purchase of the airplanes, which hints at threats of this kind very strongly. And even the politicians, who try to put across the signing of the contract, are not able to dispel black thoughts.
This Will Be Stated More Precisely


Last week, the House of Deputies rejected the terms and conditions of the purchase of the airplanes as offered by the government and returned the Act on the funding of this transaction to the Committees for further discussion. Jaroslav Tvrdík, the Minister of Defence, was shattered by this so much that he called for party punishment of two MPs representing ČSSD, who were reputedly drinking in the parliamentary canteen, instead of voting. And the Minister threatened to give in his resignation if the transaction is completely rejected. With regard to the period of his mandate until the elections, this may be a ridiculous threat, however, it well illustrates the hysteria, with which the government tries to put across the purchase of Gripens. The cabinet has been convincing the citizens for months that we cannot do without them, even though the official proposal for the reform of the Czech army stated fighter airplanes as a priority of third category up until last week. It was not until Monday that Jaroslav Tvrdík, the Minister of Defence, submitted a proposal for a new military strategy to the House of Deputies. This proposal defends a purchase of ultrasonic airplanes as the top priority. „This document cannot be taken seriously; it is more like a trivial list of what the army needs,“ says Karel Kühnl, an MP representing US. The Minister Tvrdík admits that „this is not the final version of the material but it defines the priorities“.
Many things have already been written about the manipulated tender, expensiveness of Gripens and their incompatibility with the NATO outfit, without the Ministers giving any explanations on this and without their trying to defend the purchase rationally. Finally, it has become apparent that the government is trying to put across the transaction without having a clear idea about the price of the offered goods and about where it will get the money for this. In the last two months, the government presented several versions of the ways of financing the purchase of the fighter airplanes to the members of parliament. In February, it requested the House of Deputies to approve a credit in the amount of 77 billion Crowns, explaining that the airplanes would be paid in the next decade and the money would be borrowed from commercial banks. Six weeks later, the government proposed approval of a 70-billion credit from Česká exportní banka (the Czech Export Bank). Now, it requests approval of a credit amounting to 33 billion Crowns. The rest of the price of the airplanes and the basic equipment, amounting to 30 billion, will be paid - as the relevant bill states - by using the revenues from privatisation in 2004.
It is quite incomprehensible how the government actually calculated the last price of the fighter airplanes (63 billion). In the 70-page contract on purchase of Gripens, there are 4 pages dedicated to the prices of the machines, spare parts and services. We can read, for example, that the „means of combat support“ will cost 94 million Crowns, the training of the pilots will cost 1.5 billion Crowns, etc. However, these prices are not final! The words „This will be stated more precisely“ are printed in five-centimetre type across all pages. „The seller does not quote the prices of its products and the Czech government wants us to approve the purchase,“ Petr Nečas (ODS), the chairman of the Committee for Defence and Security, one of the fundamental opponents of the purchase, describes the absurd situation.
150 Million
The delegates of the ruling ČSSD, of course, support the transaction without any reservations. They often do not even know what this is about. For example, Jan Žižka, a Social Democrat, was to be the explainer of the Act in the Committee for Defence and Security on Thursday but he gave up his role, which was assumed by the Minister Tvrdík, because, as Mr. Žižka said, „he does not understand this problem“. But even Ivan Pilip (US), a renowned economist and a liberal in the opposition, supports the Act. „The tender was not transparent, the government is not able to defend the funding of the project but we need fighter airplanes,“ he explains. But why does he support something that he himself claims to smack of manipulation? „It is more complicated. And besides that, I am not saying I will support the project, I want to discuss it for the time being,“ responds Pilip. Does he mind that the Gripen fighter airplanes will not be able to participate in common actions of the Alliance? „Well, they will not fly to Afghanistan but, in my opinion, they will be of use in Europe,“ Pilip waves his hand. Not even other MPs representing the Coalition, who support the purchase of the airplanes, are willing to defend their opinions and they only repeat phrases. „If we do not have fighter airplanes, we will not be able to defend our space,“ says Miroslav Kalousek, the main ideologist of the purchase in KDU-ČSL. This party is unanimously in favour of the purchase. The weak argumentation of the supporters is exactly the reason why corruption is mentioned so often in connection with Gripens. In the House of Deputies, one can commonly hear the backstage rumours that the BAE/Saab consortium earmarked 150 million Crowns for „lobbying“ among the Czech politicians. There are no proofs of this but the British company was proved guilty of bribing politicians in the only country, where it has sold Gripens so far - in the Republic of South Africa. The offset programme, that is, investments into the Czech industry to be ensured by BAE in exchange for the business transaction, mentions several interesting companies among the recipients of the money. For example, Omnipol is to receive 150 million Crowns. This company does not produce anything and was representing the interests of BAE when Gripens were offered to the Czech Republic. In addition to that, Richard Háva, the CEO of Omnipol, is a friend of Mr. Kalousek, the above-mentioned MP. Other recipients include, for example, Aliachem and Deza, companies controlled by Andrej Babiš, who is a protégé of another proponent of the purchase of Gripens - Miroslav Grégr, the Minister of Industry. More than a billion Crowns will come into both companies.
The House of Deputies will be dealing with the financing in the second and third readings at the beginning of May. It is expected that the Act will be passed and referred to the Senate, where it will be rejected. It will be returned to the House of Deputies and its fate will depend on the votes of the Communists - they are the only ones, who can make the number of votes reach one hundred and one by adding their votes to the votes of ČSSD, KDU and US.
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