Court of Audit sees the invoice of the purchase of armored vehicles with a further at least 300 million euros
A French Jaguar. – © Belga
The cost price for the purchase and use of the French armored vehicles will amount to at least 14.7 billion euros, according to the final report of the Court of Audit that was transferred to the parliament.
Source: Belga
Today at 10:33 AM
When the content of the provisional version leaked a few weeks ago, it caused a lot of swell. At that time there was still a total cost of 14.4 billion euros.
The purchase file goes back to 2018. It refers to 382 Griffons and 60 Jaguars. At that time there was 1.58 billion euros before the purchase alone. The criticism of the Court of Audit was that at the time the total life cycle costs were not estimated. These costs include the operation, maintenance, ammunition and the adjusted infrastructure to place the equipment. So they rise to at least 14.7 billion euros.
Minister of Defense Theo Francken (N-VA) already confirmed a few weeks ago that Defense then better portrayed the price for the entire cycle. Although he contradicted that it now suddenly fell out of several billions from the closet and he nuanced that it is about a long period of no less than 25 years.
Another Liège in the report refers to the economic return for our country in the purchase deal with France. Prime Minister Bart De Wever has already raised that imbalance with President Emmanuel Macron. When purchasing, a non-dwinging return for the Belgian economy was linked of 910 million euros. At the end of December 2023, the FPS Economy estimated that Return at 626 million euros.
The Court of Audit now orders the government to ensure that the expected return is expressed in added value for the Belgian economy and that it is linked to binding contractual provisions. They must also make a follow -up of the implementation possible.
