Czech Authority Suspends Purchase of Slovak Ammunition, Calls Procedure Unlawful

Prague, 14 October (TASR-correspondent) - The Czech Defence Ministry, which wanted to conclude a framework contract for purchasing ammunition from a Slovak company called ZVS Holding without a tender, acted unlawfully, according to the Czech Office for the Protection of Competition, TASR's Prague correspondent reports based on a story published by the Seznam Zpravy news website. The authority therefore issued an injunction prohibiting the ministry from signing the contract until a final decision is taken. It concerned joint purchases by the Czech Republic and Slovakia that were agreed by the heads of their Defence Ministries - Jana Cernochova and Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD). The ministries together wanted to buy ammunition of 30, 120 and 155 millimetre calibre from a company belonging to Michal Strnad's Czechoslovak Group. According to the website, the contract was planned for seven years. Cernochova hasn't yet commented on the ban on signing the contract, which she agreed with Kalinak. Her ministry didn't want to comment on whether this means the end of the intended joint purchase. The Seznam Zpravy website pointed out that the only Czech producer of large-calibre ammunition, the STV Group, strongly disagreed with the international contract, which was concluded without a competition. According to its owner, Martin Drda, long-standing purchases of cartridges from Slovakia would significantly damage Czech production. He told the website several months ago that such an investment made no sense and described the planned deal as favouring foreign competition. According to the draft framework contract, the Slovak-made ammunition should have been used for purchasing Leopard 2A4 tanks, Pandur II and Bushmaster armoured vehicles, CV90 tracked combat vehicles and Zuzana 2 self-propelled gun howitzers. am/df