Official planes, Poland bypasses tenders
(BRUSSELS2) This is only an idea for the moment. But it could be implemented very quickly. The Polish government seems to want to speed up the renewal of the government's fleet of aging aircraft, and would consider dispensing with the normal tender procedure, which is too cumbersome and too slow. The procedure would be accelerated, by invoking the interest of national security (Article 296 of the EC Treaty). A very broad extension of national security. And one can wonder whether it is compatible with both the spirit and the letter of the Treaty, especially in the light of the texts currently being drawn up at Community level (defence procurement directives).
The Ministry of Defense has already sent, according to our Polish colleagues from "Dziennik" a first request for the purchase of VIP planes from 11 foreign companies. The French Dassault like the Russians Sukhoï and Tupolev are consulted. The essential reference criterion is the “speed of delivery of first aircraft.” The purchase decision would be made within a few weeks and realized after a few months.
Some decisions have already been made. According to the daily "Super Express", the Ministry of Defense will thus replace the two former Jak-40 government planes with two AN-28 Bryza (8-seater) out of the 12 ordered for next year. The planes, purchased outside the tender procedure, will cost 53 million zlotys each (about 14 million euros). The newspaper notes the exorbitant price, because the same planes had been offered a few years ago to Indonesia for around 18 million zlotys.
This poses once again the need to adapt the legislative framework for public procurement to the need to move quickly in the field of security and defence, marked by very great interference (and proximity) from the States of origin of manufacturers (not to say much more, that is to say compensations, more or less hidden, from State to State). For another example, this time on public contracts awarded by EUPOL Afghanistan (Read: A private security company attacks Eupol before the ECJ).
