New Pandur purchase inquiry launched

A joint Czech-Austrian police inquiry into the controversial purchase of armored personnel carriers by the Czech military was officially launched as an anti-corruption watchdog said the government's measures to tackle graft will not uncover the "big fish."

Supreme State Attorney Renatá Vesecká said July 14 that Czech and Austrian police officers have started to investigate possible corruption linked to the purchase of Pandur armored personal carriers (APCs) from the Austrian firm, Steyr, by the Czech Defense Ministry.

"Today we begin operations by the Criminal Procedure Code," Vesecká said before confirming that it was a joint operation with the Austrian police.

On Feb. 24, The Prague Post reported that police were set to launch an investigation of the Pandur military vehicle deal after it was revealed that the Czech Republic had paid three times the price (134 million Kč) for the same equipment compared to Portugal (40 million Kč) as part of a 14.4 billion Kč contract.

The military took delivery of the first batch of 17 out of a total of 107 Pandurs in September 2009 and will receive the balance from Steyr between now and 2013.

In 2003, the then coalition government agreed with the purchase of 240 APCs. Steyr won the tender in 2006, and the military agreed to buy 199 vehicles for 23.5 billion Kč ($1.2 billion).

In 2007, another coalition government withdrew from the contract, saying the Pandurs failed military tests. However, a contract for 107 Pandur APCs worth 14.4 billion Kč was finally signed with Steyr in March 2009.

According to reports, the Austrian police have requested secretly recorded statements by two former Steyr managers who, allegedly, in conversation with an undercover reporter, described the system of commissions accompanying the Pandur deal.

'Soldiers are victims'

Previously, the Defense Ministry said the difference in price between the Czech Republic and Portugal was due to added technology that the Portuguese did not request on their vehicles.

This claim was rejected by Stanislav Beránek, assistant director of Transparency International Czech Republic.

"We are looking forward to some concrete evidence uncovering those responsible for the Pandur case," he said. "The victims of the case are the soldiers who now lack money for wages and training and taxpayers. Fat cats feel untouchable, while citizens pay their bills."

The present coalition government, which claims fighting corruption is a priority, has agreed to measures such as the establishment of special courts to deal with bribery, improving screening tests for police officers and establishing an agent provocateur office they say, will go undercover to catch officials taking bribes.

However, Transparency International believes the measures fall far short as the Interior Ministry lacks the capacity to actually fight corruption.

In particular, Beránek was critical over the creation of the role of agent provocateur, who will seek to provoke artificial situations in which someone will accept a bribe.

"In the context of the fight against corruption, [the agent provocateur] is nonsense. Bribery with cash is an archaic type of corruption. This testing will reveal some small officials, not the big fish."

No issue has plagued the Czech Republic more since the 1989 Velvet Revolution than corruption. The Czech Republic is ranked 52nd of 180 countries according to Transparency International's 2009 Corruption Perception Index 2009, the world's most credible measure of domestic public sector corruption. The country is the fifth most corrupt country in the European Union in the same survey.

Cillian O'Donoghue can be reached at
codonoghue@praguepost.com