Secret agreement with the Bundeswehr authority?

Order for new

assault rifle to C.G. Haenel possibly illegal
By Lars Petersen

Key Pointers

 In mid-September the Bundeswehr decided to place an order for 120,000 new assault rifles with
the small company C.G. Haenel to forgive.

 According to information from Business Insider, German armed forces lawyers are said to have
discovered irregularities in the tendering process. You should therefore make the award
decision in favor of C.G. Haenel have classified as illegal. The Bundeswehr is threatened with a
political disaster.

 Politically explosive: Bundeswehr representatives were asked by members of the Bundestag on

Wednesday about possible problems with the award. But they didn't want to say anything about
that.

 You can find more articles on Business Insider here.

In connection with the planned multi-million-dollar procurement of new assault rifles for the
Bundeswehr, there may be a surprising turnaround.

In mid-September, contrary to many expectations, the Bundeswehr decided that the small company
C.G. Haenel from Suhl in Thuringia receives a large order for the delivery of 120,000 new assault rifles. In
doing so, the company outdid the gunsmiths Heckler & Koch from Baden-Württemberg, one of the
world's five largest rifle and pistol manufacturers. Reason: Heckler & Koch recently demanded 179
million euros, C.G. Haenel, however, only 152 million euros. Because the offered rifles should have been
technically comparable according to an internal evaluation, the Bundeswehr decided on the cheaper
offer.

Secret subsidiary agreement?

Now, however, the whole process could still break after three years, the decision in favor of C.G. Haenel
become ineffective.

Because according to research by Business Insider, lawyers at the procurement office of the German
Armed Forces in Koblenz found formal errors in the tendering process. Business Insider has confirmed
this from multiple sources independently from both the procurement office and the Ministry of
Defense.

Specifically, it is said that after the last bid submitted by both companies ("Best and Final Offer") on June
22, 2020, a secret, written agreement between the legal department of the Bundeswehr Procurement
Office in Koblenz and C.G. Haenel have given.

What exactly the agreement contains is still unclear. In the procurement office in Koblenz, however,
according to information from Business Insider, it is assumed that the order to C.G. Haenel was thus
illegally awarded. That would be the case if the arrangement had the character of renegotiation. On the
other hand, a mere request for the offer would not be legally sensitive.

A spokesman neither wanted to confirm nor deny questions to the Ministry of Defense, such as whether
Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer or other persons at management level were aware of
deficiencies in the award decision. The procurement office and C.G. Haenel did not want to comment on
Thursday.

If the suspicion is confirmed, it would be an embarrassment for the Bundeswehr, which in the worst
case could cost taxpayers millions in damages. Above all, it would also be politically sensitive. Because:
In the Defense Committee of the Bundestag MPs had explicitly asked the representatives of the Defense
Ministry whether they were aware of possible problems with the award decision. The ministry did not
want to say anything about this, however, citing an ongoing procedure against which the defeated
armory Heckler & Koch has filed a 320-page complaint.