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The privatization of the British helicopter rescue service: failed!

Sheepish. The British Ministry of Defense and the Secretary of State for Transport announced yesterday, in front of the British Parliament, to have canceled the process of privatization of the search and rescue service by helicopter (Search and Rescue, or SaR) which was to be completed in 2012 .

Insider trading

The beneficiary of the contract, Soteria, is "voluntarily came to warn us that there were irregularities from their team responsible for responding to the market". In fact, one of the members of the consortium, CHC Helicopter (a Canadian transport company) had access to sensitive information, having recruited a former member of the evaluation committee of the projects of the Ministry of Defense. Suddenly, no only, this contract of 6 billion pounds is canceled but the privatization is called into question. The two ministries concerned "consider all options, including maintaining current SaR helicopter coverage (Nb: provided by the army's SeaKings) until new arrangements can be made".

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Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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