Police set up special team to investigate APCs deal

The police are forming a special team to investigate alleged corruption surrounding a large contract to buy armoured personnel carriers for the Czech army. Police president Oldřich Martinů told Prime Minister Jan Fischer that the first results of the investigation will be available by the end of March. The background to the awarding of a contract to buy Pandur APCs from the Austrian firm Steyr has been in the news recently, after former executives from the company told the newspaper Mladá fronta Dnes that Czech political parties had received kickbacks amounting to two or three percent of the cost. That allegation has been denied by the two biggest parties, the Social Democrats and the Civic Democrats. The deal to buy 107 APCs from Steyr was worth over CZK 14 billion, or more than USD 750 million.