After Thursday's meeting of the parliamentary Defence Committee discussing the purchase of Rafale fighter jets, Defence Minister Mario Banozic said the theory of their price increase had been dismissed and that this became clear to everyone after the release of budget projections.

“The theory imposed in public on the increase in the procurement price was rejected because the concluded agreements were explained, as were the details related to the type of armament and the processes we will go through over the next four years to introduce the Rafales into the system,” Banozic told reporters.

He explained that the amount of €999 million and an additional €63,000 are related to the price that was signed within the framework of the technical agreement and three technical contracts referring to three French companies, without which the Rafale F3R3 jets could not be introduced into the Croatian Army system.

The price in kuna is just over 7.5 billion kuna, the government said, and 8.6 billion kuna for the most part refers to VAT. Hence, that money is not leaving Croatia. We also have price indexation, which is a normal clause in any contract concluded for a number of years, he explained.

He added that the second part of the amount that was mentioned, about 17.5 million kuna, refers to next year, while 71 million kuna is projected for 2023 and 126 million kuna for 2024.

That totals HRK 215 million, the minister said, adding that he separated the amounts by year in order to present a clearer picture of what they were earmarked for, and that is for more than 80 people who will spend more than 19,000 hours training in French companies. That is for pilots, accommodation, reconstruction of existing infrastructure, which hasn’t been done for the past 20 years, and for the construction of new hangars for the jets, he said.

In someone’s interest to show that the procurement increased in price

Banožić was responding to charges of a non-transparent procurement procedure and claimed that at first, the media cited an incorrect amount for the purchase of the fighter jets and that everything was clearer when the 2022 budget was released. It was important to someone to present that as a price increase, he said.

Commenting on the US Bradley fighting vehicles, Banožić said that it is an excellent vehicle with good solutions but that he has to see what the situation with the budget is because it is necessary to technically upgrade them.

Even though America has set a January deadline for a decision, that decision will be made when all stakeholders decide what is best, he said.

He denied that he was in constant conflict with President Zoran Milanović, saying that he has a clear stance with regard to respecting the Defence Act and the Fiscal Responsibility Act.