Government rapped over lease of fighter planes

The Czech government failed to justify adequately the leasing of 14 Gripen fighter planes three years ago, the Supreme Audit Office has said. Leasing the jets has cost the state around 20 billion CZK (around 1 billion USD). The Defence Ministry has rejected the charge, saying the country needed the planes and it had first wanted 24 of them. The SAO also said there was a lack of pilots trained to fly Gripens as well as suitable technical staff.