site.btaParliament Suggests Defence Ministry Should Update Offers for New Jet Fighter

Sofia, October 5 (BTA) - Parliament suggests that the Ministry of Defence should reverse the procedure for acquiring a new fighter aircraft and revise the omissions made, a report of the Ad Hoc Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry into the selection procedure for a new type of a jet fighter for the Bulgarian Air Force shows. The MPs passed it Thursday in plenary with the support of 126 votes. Fifty-nine were against and four abstained.

Before the controversial procedure was put on hold, three bids for eight fighter jets that Bulgaria was planning to acquire at a total cost of 1.5 billion leva had been shortlisted: for new Gripens (Griffin) from Sweden's Saab, for used Eurofighter Typhoons from Italy, and for used US-made F-16s from Portugal. The procedure triggered an exchange of lobbying recriminations between the Prime Minister and the President, who backed the offer for new Gripens.

The Ad Hoc Committee's report provides for the ministry to prepare, coordinate with the Defence Ministry and then table changes in the draft investment costs under a project for the acquisition of new fighter jets at the Council of Ministers and the National Assembly. The change should include a new financial framework providing for the implementation of the three priority projects for rearmament of Bulgaria's army.

The Ad Hoc Committee suggests an update of the main options for project implementation on the basis of the offers received after an invitation to tender was sent in December 2016, including for new fighters. The options - and the new financial framework - should be submitted to the National Assembly. The report says that in end-February Bulgaria received an offer for a new fighter, which was aligned with the framework of the endorsed finances for the project but was not considered.

GERB Floor Leader Tsvetan Tsvetanov pointed out that Romania already has eight F-16 and is in the procedure of purchasing another 32. Bulgaria had to buy fighters back in 2013, he added. Commenting on the Swedish Gripen, Tsvetanov said that the deals in Hungary and the Czech Republic had ended with a scandal, and that the public in Slovakia was displeased, the president had taken that into account and there the issue had ended. Gripen's deals are currently concluded with Botswana and Tanzania, Tsvetanov said. When important decisions are made, Bulgaria should be a true NATO partner and the purchased equipment should really meet that organisation's standards, he commented.

Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) for Bulgaria Deputy Floor Leader Dragomir Stoynev responded that the masks have been dropped and that the entire "circus" was focused on just one company and Bulgaria's purchase of F-16. The Left accused the incumbent that the aim of the Ad Hoc Committee was to box the years of President Rumen Radev who is a former Air Force commander. BSP Floor Leader Kornelia Ninova noted that BSP supports Radev, who has not given in a fraction from his pre-election commitments. "You are using this committee and Parliament to fight another institution, the Presidency, in order to clear the way of Boyko Borissov to that position," she told GERB.

Djeihan Ibriyamov of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms admitted that the work of the Ad Hoc Committee has led to an institutional war. He recommended the purchase of new fighters.

In the opinion of Milen Mihov of United Patriots, the Ad Hoc Committee has done a good job. The report clearly says that there are circumstances that the subject should be treated with more reason and maybe the spending of such resources should be delayed a bit. He added that one type of armed forces cannot be prioritized for modernization at the expense of others.

Volya leader Vesselin Mareshki noted that 1.5 million is an enormous figure to spend on fighters. There are other sectors for which the money can be spent more effectively, such as education, health care and the judicial system, he added.