THE ARMY communication and information system MOKYS will be fully operational in 2014, Defence Minister Martin Glváč said December 17.
"Last week we signed an agreement with BAE Systems that MOKYS will not be implemented according to the original contract from 2005," said Glváč, as quoted by the TASR newswire. He further pointed out that in terms of the original contract the ministry has managed to save ten times the cost.
German Ambassador Michael Schmunk, British Charge d'Affaires Gill Fraser, U.S. Ambassador Theodore Sedgwick and a representative of BAE Systems were also present at the press conference promoting the new agreement under which MOKYS should be completed in 2014.
According to Chief-of-General-Staff of the Slovak Armed Forces Peter Vojtek, MOKYS should be certified for a battalion, which is around 1,000 troops, in 2016. Sedgwick stressed that the project is very advanced and that its communications capabilities make it interoperable with NATO, TASR wrote.
The procurement of the system was from the outset accompanied by suspicions. The police carried out investigations into the tender, and former Prime Minister Iveta Radičová filed a criminal complaint on suspicion of the serious crime of violations of obligations in the management of foreign assets.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Michaela Terenzani from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
