Because the operational readiness of the weapon system leaves a lot to be desired, it is retrofitted at great expense.
(Photo: imago images/Sven Eckelkamp)
Berlin The traffic light factions are putting pressure on the Federal Ministry of Defense to quickly introduce reforms to the procurement system of the Bundeswehr and to report regularly to Parliament on the progress made.
“In order to remedy the equipment deficits of the Bundeswehr as quickly as possible, an efficient and effective reorganization of the procurement structures is necessary,” says a motion by the budget working groups of the SPD, Greens and FDP, which the budget committee of the Bundestag in the adjustment session on Friday night has decided.
Therefore, the procurement system and the responsible federal office in Koblenz should be reformed as soon as possible. The budget committee calls on the federal government to provide information on the current state of affairs at the beginning of each quarter starting in September.
The demand should also be seen against the background of the planned EUR 100 billion special fund for the armed forces. “More money alone will not be enough for the necessary better equipment of the Bundeswehr,” Green Housekeeper Sebastian Schäfer told the Handelsblatt. Only with more efficient procurement can it be guaranteed that the money will reach the troops quickly.
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There is great agreement in the traffic light coalition that the structures must be tackled “at high pressure”. “Parliament, and in particular the budget committee, will closely monitor this process.” The Federal Court of Auditors, which is critical of the procurement office in Koblenz, should also be regularly asked for an opinion.
Expert opinion: High additional costs could have been avoided
The procurement system of the Bundeswehr has long been criticized. In a report for Greenpeace, the researcher Michael Brzoska from the Hamburg Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy has just stated that in recent years additional costs of between 35 and 54 percent could have been avoided when purchasing large weapon systems such as frigates, helicopters and armored personnel carriers.
Read more about the equipment plans for the Bundeswehr here:
As reasons for the waste of funds in Germany, Brzoska cites questionable priorities in procurement projects, a focus on the technically most sophisticated solution or special requests from the armed forces, which make European joint projects more expensive.
Taskforce established to accelerate procurement.
(Photo: imago images/Björn Trotsky)
Prestige concerns in the armed forces and politics and the desire to support the domestic armaments industry also led to cost increases because cheaper alternative offers, for example from US armaments companies, were not even considered.
Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) set up a new task force in March to speed up procurement and make it more efficient. The only problem is that it often takes ten to 15 years from planning to the finished product. In addition, the device is not ready for use when it is delivered and has to be retrofitted at great expense.
The federal government has already raised the limit for direct orders from 1,000 to 5,000 euros. Orders up to this amount should be able to be awarded without a call for tenders – for example to order spare parts. In addition, Lambrecht wants to interpret European public procurement law less restrictively, as do many NATO partners.
On Wednesday, the federal cabinet dealt with the key points for a Bundeswehr procurement acceleration law. The announcement that such a law should come is to be welcomed, said the chairwoman of the Union faction in the defense committee, Kerstin Vieregge (CDU), the Handelsblatt. The Bundeswehr must be equipped as soon as possible for its task of national and alliance defense. “However, the last few months have shown that the federal government has still not followed up on its big announcements with action,” said Vieregge.
In their application, the traffic light householders refer to the core sentence of the Federal Budget Code, according to which “the principles of economy and economy must be observed” when preparing and executing the budget.
This involves large sums of money. Of the defense budget of 50.4 billion euros, which the budget committee has decided for the current year, around 10 billion euros are allocated to the chapter on military procurement and another almost 5 billion euros to material maintenance in the Bundeswehr.
In the future, the householders also want to pay special attention to so-called “self-management”. This involves spending authorizations that are available beyond the current financial year. The federal government should also report regularly to the budget committee, “so that transparency is created in the outflow of funds.”
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