- The National Council’s Audit Committee (GPK-N) judges the evaluation procedure for the F-35 fighter jet to be lawful.
- However, she criticizes the fact that the Federal Council unnecessarily restricted its room for maneuver from the start.
- The Commission has formulated recommendations and demands that the Federal Council clarify at an early stage in future armaments procurements to what extent it also wants to include overriding political considerations.
At a media conference, the GPK-N presented the report on its inspection initiated in November 2021 on selected aspects of the evaluation process for the Swiss Army’s new combat aircraft. She states that the technical evaluation “was legally correct and Armasuisse took the necessary measures to ensure equal treatment of providers and an objectified, comprehensible procedure”.
In a media release, the GPK-N writes that the Federal Council adhered to the legal and self-defined political requirements in the process. Procurement law basically gives the Federal Council a great deal of room for maneuver in the procurement of armaments.
Unnecessary restriction of room for maneuver
“Depending on the definition of the framework conditions, he could have included overriding political considerations in the decision,” the media release continues. “Due to the framework conditions defined by him at the beginning of the procedure, the Federal Council found when making the type decision that it was not possible to include foreign policy considerations.”
The GPK-N identified this early and from their point of view unnecessary restriction of the room for maneuver as the main problem of the procurement process.
In June 2021, Secretary of Defense Viola Amherd announced that the US manufacturer Lockheed Martin had made the best value for money offer. The decision led to numerous discussions at political level and in the media. Airbus had also applied for the order with the Eurofighter, Boeing with the F/A-18 Super Hornet and the French company Dassault with the Rafale.