ORAC
11th Apr 2007, 15:38
Looks more like the government trying to find a legal hole to go to court and try and get out of the contract to me....
DefenseNews: Austria’s Air Force Chief Suspended Over Eurofighter Contract
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, VIENNA
Austria’s air force chief has been suspended over irregularities in a 2003 contract to buy 18 Eurofighters planes, Austria’s Defense Minister Norbert Darabos announced April 10.
Gen. Erich Wolf had not managed to clear up the suspicions that a lobbyist for the plane’s constructor EADS had paid 87,000 euros (117,000 dollars) to a company owned by Wolf’s wife when the contract was being negotiated.
Darabos made the announcement after a private meeting April 10 with Wolf, 58, before the defense ministry’s disciplinary committee.
A parliamentary commission launched by the Social Democrats, the environmental Green party and part of the far-right, has been examining the deal since last October.
The contract was signed with EADS in 2003 by then Austrian chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel.
His successor, Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, said April 9 that the recent revelations were “to be taken very seriously” and made it more likely that Austria would pull out of or amend the contract.
Gusenbauer, a Social Democrat, made a campaign pledge to scrap the Eurofighter contract worth some two billion euros before his election on October 1.......
DefenseNews: Austria’s Air Force Chief Suspended Over Eurofighter Contract
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, VIENNA
Austria’s air force chief has been suspended over irregularities in a 2003 contract to buy 18 Eurofighters planes, Austria’s Defense Minister Norbert Darabos announced April 10.
Gen. Erich Wolf had not managed to clear up the suspicions that a lobbyist for the plane’s constructor EADS had paid 87,000 euros (117,000 dollars) to a company owned by Wolf’s wife when the contract was being negotiated.
Darabos made the announcement after a private meeting April 10 with Wolf, 58, before the defense ministry’s disciplinary committee.
A parliamentary commission launched by the Social Democrats, the environmental Green party and part of the far-right, has been examining the deal since last October.
The contract was signed with EADS in 2003 by then Austrian chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel.
His successor, Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, said April 9 that the recent revelations were “to be taken very seriously” and made it more likely that Austria would pull out of or amend the contract.
Gusenbauer, a Social Democrat, made a campaign pledge to scrap the Eurofighter contract worth some two billion euros before his election on October 1.......