http://www.ceskenoviny.cz/news/zpravy/czechrep-to-pay-for-armoured-vehicles-more-than-claimed-press/418816
Czech News Agency January 11, 2010 CzechRep to pay for armoured vehicles more than claimed - press Prague: The Czech Defence Ministry might pay a total of almost five billion crowns for Iveco light armoured vehicles, though last year the ministry signed a contract for the supply of 90 Ivecos for over 3.6 billion crowns, including logistics and ammunition, the daily E15 writes today. "The total price will exceed 4.8 billion crowns," the E15´s sources agreed, saying Defence Minister Martin Bartak would have to ask the Finance Ministry to approve a higher price of the project. E15 recalls that last October Bartak even claimed the Ivecos would cost up to two billion crowns. But closely before Christmas, the Defence Ministry announced it had signed a contract on the supply of 90 Iveco vehicles for over 3.6 billion with the Praga-Export company. "The price of two billion crowns is roughly the price of the vehicles alone. The rest is spent on arms systems, ammunition and logistics. And VAT is about 600 million crowns," Jan Pejsek, from the Defence Ministry´s press section, said previously. However, it seems that this price is not final since the ministry plans to buy another 30 vehicles, along with the 90 Ivecos, and wants to equip all the vehicles with radio and navigation systems from the United States, E15 writes. Consequently the total price will be over 4.8 billion crowns, according to experts. "The main problem is that no tender has been launched in this case," Chamber of Deputies defence committee deputy head Antonin Seda (Social Democrats, CSSD) said, adding that the ministry has not released its exact requirements for the supply. Seda reminded that Bartak had stressed in the autumn that the supply of Ivecos would be advantageous since the Czech military would buy them along with Slovakia. However, Slovaks have not bought a single vehicle yet, he added. The Iveco M65E light personnel armoured carriers are to replace some of the originally planned Pandur II wheeled armoured personnel carriers and to complete the number of the wheeled armoured vehicles in the Czech military´s mechanised brigades. The Czech-Slovak Battlegroup that is being formed reckons with using them for the EU needs. ($1=18.436 crowns) =========================== Stop NATO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/stopnato Blog site: http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/ To subscribe, send an e-mail to: [email protected] or [email protected] Daily digest option available. ==============================
