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Yes, Saab is only allowed to take part if they and/or BAe come forward with all available data they have on suspected corruption concerning the 2004 lease deal...
http://www.praguemonitor.com/2010/11/15 ... es-says-pm
ČR to call new tender after Gripens' lease expires, says PM
ČTK | 15 November 2010
Prague, Nov 14 (CTK) - The Czech Republic will call a new tender after the lease of the Jas-39 Gripen fighters expires in 2015,
Prime Minister Petr Necas said in the Questions of Vaclav Moravec discussion programme on public Czech Television (CT) Sunday.
The Gripens' supplier, the British-Swedish BAE Systems/Saab consortium,
will be able to take part in the tender only on condition that
Britain and Sweden give the Czech Republic all available data about the suspected corruption accompanying the Gripen deal,
said Necas, chairman of the Civic Democrats (ODS).
"A new open tender must be declared in which bidders from several countries can compete.
I cannot image that the use of Gripen fighters in the Czech air force would be extended automatically," Necas said.
It must be investigated whether the acquisition of Gripens was accompanied by corruption or not, he added.
"I expect 100-percent collaboration of the respective bodies in Sweden and Britain.
I expect them, including the British Serious Fraud Office, to provide all detail information on the case.
If they did not, I cannot imagine that we would be considering cooperating with the companies as Saab and British Aerospace," Necas said.
The Czech Republic originally planned to buy the Gripen ultrasonic fighters.
The contract of purchase worth 60.2 billion crowns was approved by the Social Democrats (CSSD) cabinet of Milos Zeman in April 2002, but it was not passed by parliament.
The Czech military in the end leased 14 Gripens for 19.6 billion crowns in 2004. The contract expires in 2015.
Information on the alleged corruption around the planned purchase of the Jas-39 Gripen fighters appeared in the Swedish television's reports in February 2007.
Austrian businessman Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly, who worked in the Czech Republic as an adviser to BAE Systems, was allegedly entangled in the corruption.
The British police prosecuted him on corruption suspicion, but BAE Systems agreed with the U.S. and British authorities on a fine in exchange for halting the investigation.
"It is beyond my imagination that at the moment when the British Serious Fraud Office stated that corruption had been committed in the Czech Republic,
we would pretend as if nothing happened, British Aerospace would pay some fine and everything would be solved," Necas told CT.
