/ world today news/ The government has opened wide the door for the supply of defense equipment without applying the Public Procurement Law (PPL).
Changes to the regulation minimize the possibilities for public scrutiny of how and why a supplier to the military is selected, if the cabinet determines that information sensitive to national security is shared during its selection.
The innovations were pushed through the cancellation of the Ordinance adopted in 2013 on the criteria and procedure for determining basic national interests in the field of defense, reports Sega. This happened last Friday, and the proposal was submitted by the Minister of Defense Nikolay Nenchev. The new texts were released for public discussion by the Ministry of Defense as early as June 30, but were apparently not urgent until October 14, when they were approved by the ministers for signature without a meeting of the Council of Ministers.
The amended Ordinance regulates the cases in which the ZOP does not apply. According to the new texts, the Minister of Defense will judge when there will be no competition due to the specifics of the information. He will submit a proposal to the government, which will make the final decision.
The redacted document omits a very important mechanism that prevents the government from spending millions without control. In the old version, there is a text that stipulates that any project over BGN 50 million must be approved in advance by the Parliament and only then that the Council of Ministers gives consent to conclude a contract without a public procurement. The entire section with this text has now been removed. Also missing is the chapter that refers to compensatory agreements with suppliers of military equipment when they are under PPAs.
Parliamentary controls on major military supplies were introduced after the government of Simeon of Saxe-Coburg-Gothic entered into a number of controversial military contracts that were to be paid by subsequent governments. Because of these texts, the government had to submit the investment projects for the purchase of new fighter jets and the construction of warships to the National Assembly. The MPs gave their consent, but there are still more projects to come for combat machines, for radars and unmanned aircraft.
The change in the regulation will most likely lead to new scandals in the parliamentary committee on defense, which has targeted the project for the purchase of new fighter jets for BGN 1.5 billion. As “Sega” wrote, the Ministry of Defense tried without much fuss to change the criteria for choice of fighters to buy used machines. The new texts in the regulation have a direct bearing on the way in which it is planned to conclude a contract for the delivery of the aircraft. The PPA and the amended document allow this to be done without directly negotiated tenders. Talks have already been held with representatives of the US, Israeli and Portuguese militaries regarding aircraft delivery options. At the same time, companies such as SAAB are expecting to be sent an official request to submit an offer for new Gripen fighters, which is not happening. With the abolition of compensatory agreements, one of the advantages of the Swedes, who offer to invest in the Bulgarian economy in return for the billions for military equipment, is taken away.
Last week, it should have become clear whether the criteria for selecting a new fighter jet from the Ministry of Defense have been changed, but for now not even the deputies from the line committee have accurate information. Last week, Deputy Minister of Defense Atanas Zapryanov appeared before her, who read written responses to Nenchev and Air Force Commander Gen. Tsanko Stoykov. According to them, the requirements for the new fighters were changed in June and now a second correction was due. On this occasion, the deputies decided that the next meeting would be entirely devoted to the acquisition of the new combat aircraft.
The proposed changes give preference to used US fighter jets. One of the amendments is related to changing the weight of the “Expected life” criterion. If in the version of the Air Force a serious advantage is given to this indicator, in the new version this indicator is considered minimally. Thus, it will hardly matter whether one buys a new fighter that will be used for the next 30-40 years, or a third-hand aircraft that will only be flown for 10 years. That’s exactly how many Portuguese F-16s are expected to be used, for which there is the greatest pressure to be bought. After that, new billions will have to be allocated for combat aircraft.
It is also proposed to introduce a new criterion with serious weight – “Military cooperation”. The Air Force did not want him to have weight in the selection, since Bulgaria cooperates mainly with the USA in the military field, while Sweden is in a losing position, since it is not a member of NATO.
The third proposal is to drop the requirement for the new fighter to be able to perform air-to-ground missions. Thus, instead of a multipurpose fighter, the Air Force will buy a “crippled” combat aircraft and will have to continue to maintain the Russian Su-25 in Bezmer. This contradicts the MoD’s plans to rid itself of Soviet armaments. The military would also have to spend more money to maintain several types of fighter jets, thus wasting funds.
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