Final Word from Monday, October 18, 2004
It wasn't a surprise that Airbus won the tender last week for supplying 12 new airplanes to ČSA. The surprise was how well ČSA justified the decision in the face of widespread suspicions of favoritism and outright allegations by Boeing. Premier Stanislav Gross started the massaging on Sept. 5, when he told TV Prima that Jaroslav Tvrdík is doing a great job as CEO of ČSA. No one can question now that appointing Tvrdík was a good decision, he said. ČSA then structured the tender - esp. the financial part - so that it was possible to justify awarding the contract to either side. The coup de grace was the fact that the final decision was unanimous in Airbus's favor. All this taken together, it became very difficult for any outsider to dispute the transparency of the process. Tvrdík & Co. have either run a very clean tender, or they've gotten very clever at running a dirty one. aircraft