Fischer demands Pandur probe

The fallout from the Pandur affair continues with politicians involved in the purchase of 107 Pandur armored personnel carriers (APCs) targeting each other.

Prime Minister Jan Fischer has also asked for the Czech intelligence service BIS to cooperate in the police investigation of the Pandur purchase. Fischer denied his request revealed a lack of faith in the police investigation, but rather, he said, the intelligence service might have information unavailable to the police.

The Pandur contract was signed in March 2009, by then Deputy Defense Minister Martin Barták. Vlasta Parkanová, defense minister at the time, claimed she was overlooked for the contract's signing in favor of Barták but saw no indication of corruption in the deal.

However, Parkanová, was forthright in saying the tender for the Pandurs in 2006 did not meet the Army's needs.

"There was never any hint that corruption was involved in the deal, either in 2006 or 2009, but the initial deal involved megalomania and did not meet the needs of our Army," she said.

Parkanová is now a senator and a member of the TOP 09 political party but had been defense minister for the Christian Democrats.

Her ministerial capability was called into question by Civic Democratic Party (ODS) Chairman Mirek Topolánek, who was prime minister at the time of the Pandur contract's signing in 2009.

Parkanová's courage "was close to zero," Topolánek told reporters.

In turn, Parkanová said Topolánek was pushing to buy the Pandurs from Steyr, an Austrian company. Responding to Topolánek's statements that she was responsible for the suspicious deal, Parkanová said Topolánek had sidelined her in favor of Bartak. He wanted "his man" at the ministry, Barták, then deputy defense minister and current defense minister, to oversee the contract, she said.

Again, Topolánek took issue. "We could not have pushed for the purchase of the Pandurs as they had been agreed to before we were in power," Topolánek said.

The Social Democratic Party (ČSSD) led government initially agreed with the purchase of 240 APCs in 2003.

Steyr won the tender in 2006, and the military agreed to buy 199 vehicles for 23.5 billion Kč.

In 2007, Topolánek's coalition government withdrew from the contract, saying the Pandurs failed military tests. New negotiations began, and the contract for 107 Pandur II APCs worth 14.4 billion Kč was signed with Steyr in March 2009.

Pandurs purchased by the government cost three times as much as Pandurs purchased by Portugal. The Defense Ministry claims this was due to modifications made to the Czech Pandurs.

There have been allegations that the purchase of the Pandurs may have been accompanied by corruption, specifically involving the bribing of politicians.

The Czech anti-corruption police have begun investigating the case.

- Petr Cibulka Jr. contributed to this report.

Tom Clifford can be reached at
tclifford@praguepost.com