Moj prevod članka o slovenačkoj aferi Patria. Objavljen 17. 6. u Reporteru. Poslije ovog prevoda, uhvatila me užasna glavobolja. Ko je kome šta podvalio ... Hiljade imena, tekst ubibože ispremetan i igra ping-pong s vašim mozgom ... A naručilac niko drugi do Evropska investiciona banka ... Baš će da se informišu ... Slovenci, bre, dajte malo jasnije! Već ste u EU, jebem li ga ... --------------------------------------- Sistemska Tehnika’s web of corruption By Biserka Karneža Cerjak Photos by Primož Lavre, BOBO [email protected] Could the worst-case scenario that Roman Jakič, Minister of Defence, publicly spoke about become a reality? If the defendants in the rigged and politically-motivated ‘Patria’ trial were convicted by a final judgment, the contract for the purchase of the Finnish Patria armoured vehicles would become null and void because of the anti-corruption clause. Caption on page 1: During Prime Minister Anton Rop’s term of office and immediately before the 2004 elections, the Ministry of Defence, headed by Anton Grizold, signed a letter of intent to purchase krpans (Slovene armoured vehicles) without putting the contract out to tender. Such a scenario would signal the beginning of two separate processes: the return of the Patria vehicles to the Finnish manufacturer and the return of the money invested to Sistemska Tehnika. But the latter is, in fact, where the corruption story started, back in 2003, while Anton Rop was still Prime Minister. Besides, it could win as much as EUR 250 million in damages. Obviously, we could have a completely different outcome if the parliamentary committee of inquiry being proposed by Janez Janša, leader of the Slovene Democratic Party (SDS), in response to the rigged and politically-motivated Patria trial, is established. The trial is said to be an arbitrary and politically-motivated one because, as Dr Klemen Jaklič puts it, it does not follow the law as required by the Slovene Constitution. Are we in for a new big bang? The Slovene public could then finally find out that Sistemska Tehnika, which has persisted with its action against the Government for the seventh year running, is actually not entitled to compensation at all. What is more, it would be plain to see that the whirlpool of corruption started, not with the signing of the contract with Patria, but with the below-cost sale of Sistemska Tehnika to Zdenko Pavček during Prime Minister Rop’s term of office and with the letter of intent to purchase the 8 x 8 wheeled armoured vehicles without inviting tenders. Recent heated statements by all those who are familiar with Sistemska Tehnika’s under-the-counter deals lead us to suspect that a complex finale to this story could be played out very soon indeed. In an interview with the Večer newspaper, Walter Wolf, a Canadian businessman who is one of the defendants in the Patria scandal, used almost prophetic words to announce his counterblow: “Mark my words, some people have yet to feel the full force of my anger.” Caption on page 2: Zdenko Pavček, once a prominent member of Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (LDS), has taken over 21 companies through the Viator&Vektor company and he ultimately took over the latter, which is now bankrupt. As has been mentioned many times before, Wolf has pointed out that the Patria trial is merely a ploy orchestrated by a powerful lobby consisting of the members of the former communist party, including Milan Kučan, Janez Zemljarič and Janez Stanovnik. “That network still has the whole country firmly in its hands.” Keeping a low profile in Canada because, as he says, he would not get a fair trial in Slovenia, Wolf claims that details of this dirty story will be unveiled to the lawyers and Reuters in the coming months: “It is my turn now to set off the next big bang.” Sistemska Tehnika’s shipments to Iran With these words, Wolf has pointed the finger at Sistemska Tehnika which, he says, has been violating the international arms embargo on Iran for years. The company has been exporting arms components to Iran through Turkey and there are a large number of documents to support this. In addition, one of the shipments originating from Ravne na Koroškem and destined to Iran, through Hungary, has actually been detected. The whole matter was swept under the carpet despite the fact that the Austrian Steyr, which is owned by the US company General Dynamics, has withdrawn from the deal precisely because of the Iran shipment. “Since then, they have wanted to have nothing more to do with Sistemska Tehnika”, said Wolf to Večer and added that the breaches of the Iran embargo are what the US, and Israel in particular, find so upsetting. However, we need to remember that Walter Wolf has caused major stirs in the public many times before. As early as 2008, when, just before the elections, the complaints about the purchase of Patria’s armoured vehicles began piling up, Wolf publicly said that Sistemska Tehnika was manufacturing the Valuk armoured vehicle without a prior call for tenders and that “the gentlemen in LDS and the then Government ignored this fact”. At the time, he asked Zdenko Pavček from Viator&Vektor to explain, “without telling any lies”, how it is that he managed to acquire a 75% interest in Sistemska Tehnika, a government-owned company. Being chums with Zdenko Pavček Wolf also explained the role of Jure Cekuta in Sistemska Tehnika, who was known to be a good friend of Dr Janez Drnovšek, the late Prime Minister, Gregor Golobič and Jelko Kacin. When listing out the names of the people implicated in Sistemska Tehnika’s dealings, he was careful not to forget those of Milan Cvikl, former chairman of the parliamentary committee investigating the purchase of the 8 x 8 wheeled armoured vehicles and his current wife, Jerca Legan Cvikl, a one-time advisor to Zdenko Pavček at Viator&Vektor. But, the circle of Zdenko Pavček’s friends was much broader than that, of course. Pavček, once a prominent member of Liberal Democracy of Slovenia (LDS), who had taken over 21 companies through the Viator&Vektor company, and who ultimately took over the latter, which is now bankrupt, recruited into Viator&Vektor politicians from SD and LDS, including Anton Colarič, a former Vice-Mayor of Ljubljana, Samo Lozej, currently Director of the Toplarna Ljubljana thermal power plant and political affiliate of the Mayor of Ljubljana, Zoran Janković, and, finally, Igor Zajc. Vika Potočnik, once a prominent member of LDS, sat on Viator&Vektor’s Supervisory Board and the company also employed some individuals who had previously worked for the Ministry of Defence. Another noteworthy name was that of Miran Kos, Sistemska Tehnika’s lawyer, who leads us to Irma Pavlinič Krebs, formerly Minister of Public Administration in Pahor’s Government. When Kos became the cohabiting partner of Krebs’s daughter, who is also a lawyer, he took over most of the cases handled by her law firm. Otherwise, Miran Kos is better known as the brother of Marta Kos, once an important member of Kučan’s Forum 21 and soon the next Slovene Ambassador to Berlin, and Drago Kos, who played by far the most prominent role in the Patria scandal. During the hearing of Drago Kos, who previously chaired the Anti-Corruption Commission and dealt with the Finnish investigators, it was found out that the political parties were the first to denounce corruption at Patria. In an attempt to avoid direct responsibility, Kos said: “I cannot confirm or deny anything when it comes to LDS”. Captions on page 3: Zvonko Černač said that krpans come with a EUR 50 million higher price tag than Finnish Patria vehicles, which are of a considerably better quality. Using prophetic words, the businessman Walter Wolf has announced a new big bang to Večer: “Mark my words, some people have yet to feel the full force of my anger”. Roman Jakič has pointed out that a final judgment in the Patria case could lead to the vehicles and the money being returned. A Government-owned company sold for an armoured vehicle As Janez Janša, leader of SDS, has repeatedly said in public, the corruption story began with Sistemska Tehnika. To be specific, in 2003, Anton Rop’s Government sold Sistemska Tehnika to Zdenko Pavček, Rop’s party mate and personal friend, below cost, at a price not higher than the value of a 6 x 6 wheeled armoured vehicle. Just months later, 29% of Sistemska Tehnika, which Pavček had thus bought at an extremely favourable price, was sold for a significantly higher price to the Austrian Steyr, whose majority owner is the US company General Dynamics. At the same time, Sistemska Tehnika was granted a licence to manufacture 8 x 8 wheeled armoured vehicles. Obviously, one may legitimately wonder why it is that the then Government failed to sell Sistemska Tehnika, a government-owned company at the time, to Steyr directly as it could have earned a great deal more that way than by selling it to Pavček. It should be noted that, after Sistemska Tehnika had fallen into private hands, Rop’s Government decided to purchase around 135 8 x 8 wheeled armoured vehicles from Sistemska Tehnika. Immediately thereafter and just before the 2004 elections, a Government representative and Sistemska Tehnika, now a privately-owned company, signed a letter of intent to buy the 8 x 8 vehicles despite the fact that the contract had not been put out to tender. Transparent international tendering Zvonko Černač, former chairman of the parliamentary committee that investigated, among other matters, the purchase of 6 x 6 armoured vehicles from Sistemska Tehnika during the 2004-2008 governmental term, told us that Janez Janša’s Government had wanted to do away with the previous practice of procuring arms technology in a non-transparent manner. Thus, in 2005, when Karl Erjavec was Minister of Defence, his Ministry issued an international invitation to tender. They sent it to five interested parties and received two tenders, one from Sistemska Tehnika and the other from Patria. Judging by all the criteria, the Finnish tender was the more favourable one. Patria’s prices for individual items were as much as 12-18% lower than that of krpans offered by Sistemska Tehnika. Other advantages of the Finnish tender included a countertrade arrangement and better quality. As has been mentioned many times before, the Finnish armoured vehicles compared to krpans as a Mercedes would to a Fiat 600. However, we have recently learned from our contacts that the krpan had not even been manufactured by the time the call for tenders was issued. Apart from the design drawings, the only thing that Sistemska Tehnika was able to present at the Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre was a wooden model of the vehicle. By contrast, Patria’s armoured vehicles had already been used in military operations and thus tested out on various battlefields. Therefore, any minister who knows the value of his/her troops and cares about their lives would choose a safer and tested vehicle over a ‘pig in a poke’. Against this background, the statement by the current Slovene Minister of Defence, Roman Jakič, that the Ministry will stick to Patria’s vehicles makes every sense. Soldiers on the battlefield will, no doubt, agree with him. Can we imagine, as Černač adds, what would have happened if the then Minister of Defence, Erjavec, had made a different decision? Today, we would be using 8 x 8 wheeled krpans, which are not as good as Patria’s vehicles, and we would have paid EUR 50 million more. This would have made some tycoons even richer but it is also true that, in that case, Janez Janša, in particular, would now be able to breathe a sigh of relief because the rigged and politically-motivated trial against him would never have been launched. The Prosecution has returned the case against Zdenko Pavček pending further police investigations Captions on page 4: Miran Kos, Sistemska Tehnika’s lawyer, is said to be implicated in the corruption charges in the Patria case. Milan Švajger, Director of Sistemska Tehnika, where, according to Janez Janša, leader of SDS, the corruption story began. Before the letter of intent was signed, Sistemska Tehnika, a government-owned company, had been sold below-cost to Zdenko Pavček According to our sources, Sistemska Tehnika’s krpan did not even exist in physical form by the time the call for tenders was issued. Only design drawings were available at the time and, apparently, a wooden model was presented at the Ljubljana Exhibition and Convention Centre. Caption on page 5: Marta Kos, in the company of her brother Drago Kos who has denied allegations of receiving a EUR 800,000 payment for his role in the Patria trial Pavček made threats against Erjavec All members of the Slovene Parliament were given access to the signed agreement with the Finnish Patria. However, in response to repeated complaints about the agreement’s lack of transparency, Karel Erjavec has said many times that appropriate action would have been taken long ago if anything had been found to be wrong. Since the letter of intent to purchase the krpan 8 x 8 wheeled vehicles, which was signed during former Prime Minister Rop’s term in office, immediately before the elections, became inconsequential when the agreement with Patria was signed, this obviously greatly upset all those who had expected Zdenko Pavček’s Sistemska Tehnika to be awarded the contract without a call for tenders. As Karel Erjavec, the Minister of Defence at the time, later said, after the decision to purchase the Finnish Patria vehicles had been made (the deal having been brokered by Rotis), Pavček paid an uninvited visit to Erjavec. During their encounter, Pavček made a series of threats against Erjavec, demanding that he cancel the decision or else he would find himself in serious trouble, his life would become hell and he would be made to resign before the end of his term of office. Pavček made good on his treats, too: Erjavec found himself under constant pressure from LDS and was forced to resign as Minister of the Environment and Spatial Planning in Prime Minister Pahor’s Government. Later on, the Public Prosecutor’s Office even brought charges of misconduct against Erjavec in connection with the decision that the contract be awarded to the Finnish Patria. When he was acquitted of all the charges by a district court, Erjavec finally spoke out about the letter of intent between Pavček’s Sistemska Tehnika and Rop’s Government, according to which the EUR 300 million contract was to be awarded to Sistemska Tehnika without being put out to tender. Rich pickings While former Minister Erjavec was thus facing serious threats and court charges, a rigged and politically-motivated trial was started against Janez Janša, leader of SDS, and other co-defendants. Even now, the possibility that the trial might end with a final decision is hanging like a sword of Damocles over their heads while no legal action has ever been taken against any of the main actors in Sistemska Tehnika’s scandal. Although criminal charges have been brought against Zdenko Pavček, owner of the now bankrupt Viator&Viktor, they are not related to Sistemska Tehnika’s dealings. The police have referred the matter to the competent prosecutor who has returned it back to the police pending further investigations. The former Prime Minister, Anton Rop, who is currently Vice-President of the European Investment Bank, claims that he has not had any business dealings with Pavček in connection with the armoured vehicles. When it comes to Sistemska Tehnika, he will only be prepared to comment if he is given the same treatment as Janez Janša. Milan Cvikl, who has played an active role in collecting the materials in the Patria case in order to destroy Janša, has been rewarded with the post of member of the European Court of Auditors, where he earns EUR 20,000 a month. Drago Kos, former chairman of the Anti-Corruption Commission, is sitting pretty, too, with his very own consulting firm. He has dismissed all allegations that the amount of EUR 800,000, which was transferred to his account within a single year, represents the reward for his role in the rigged Patria trial. He claims to have received the money as payment for consultancy services he provided to partners abroad, but he refuses to mention any names. As these are business agreements, he is not actually obliged to disclose any details anyway.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Jun 2013 20:29:35 +0000