The fine of 550 million crowns imposed on the Ministry of Defense for the tender for the purchase of Army helicopters is valid, the chairman of the Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS) Petr Mlsna announced. The President of the Office rejected the appeal filed by the Ministry against the first-instance decision of February this year. The Ministry must therefore pay the fine, the decision is final, and MoD is taking the case to the court: „The outcome of the court proceedings does not have a suspensive effect on the imposed sanction and the Ministry of Defense must pay the fine. This will not cause property damage, as it will be a transfer of funds within two state institutions.“
By its first-instance decision of 2 February this year, the Office imposed a fine of 550 million crowns on the Ministry of Defense for violating the Public Procurement Act in the criticized purchase of the Venom and Viper helicopters. In the decision, the Office states that the Department of Defense committed the offense by illegally concluding a contract for the purchase of multi-purpose helicopters with the US Government in the form of a government-government agreement before dealing with objections filed by the Italian company Leonardo.
See also: A fine of half a billion for the Ministry of Defense for the purchase of Venom and Viper helicopters
Earlier, Leonardo contacted the Office, and pointed out that the tender did not follow the European legislation. Leonardo said MoD was abusing the possibility of exemption from the Public Procurement Act.
The President of the Office, Petr Mlsna, confirmed the decision of 2 February, when the office headed by him rejected all objections in the appeal against the first-instance decision submitted by the Ministry of Defense. The resort will have to pay the fine from its budget. Minister of Defense Lubomír Metnar stated earlier at the meeting of the Defense Committee that if the Ministry does not succeed in its dissolution, it will defend itself against the fine through the courts, however, this does not release the Ministry from the obligation to pay the fine.
Jana Černochová, chairwoman of the Defense Committee, commented on the latest decision of the Office on her Facebook account. According to her, after the remaining 5 billion crowns were finally returned to the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry will now lose half a billion crowns "due to its inability":
"The final decision of the Office for the Protection of Competition to impose a fine of more than half a billion on the Ministry of Defense for mistakes in the contract for the purchase of multi-purpose helicopters is a disaster for the defense budget and our armed forces. Regardless of whether a court trial will follow, and regardless of its outcome, it is obvious that the rejection of the objection of one of the bidders against the result of the tender was a fundamental mistake," Černochová said.
See also: MoD's response to the decision of the Office on the acquisition of helicopters
The Office has previously ruled that, in view of the security interests of the State in this case, a ban on performance of the contract cannot be imposed.
„The Ministry of Defense complies with the law when implementing modernization projects. Despite the rejection of the appeal by the President of the Office, we are still convinced of the correctness of the procedure for acquiring new helicopters,“ MoD announced in its press release.
Source: ÚOHS, army.cz