"The company responsible for the maintenance of the Kamov is now notified to pay penalties for non-compliance in 2017 and 2018 amounting to close to €4 million. That is the extent of the breach of contract," said the Minister of Internal Administration in parliamant today.Eduardo Cabrita is fully aware that not one of the six Kamov helicopters, purchased from Russia for €42 million and under a €46 million Everjets maintenance contract, is available for use.
"On 29 July, 2017, the National Civil Aviation Authority informed the company that it is not in a position to fulfil its contractual obligations regarding the maintenance of these aircraft," said Eduardo Cabrita.
"It is within this framework that we are considering all the solutions in defence of the public interest and are not concerned with issues of a private nature," added the minister, referring to the stench of corruption that has surrounded the Russian deal from day one and the lucrative air cover cartel that may still be in operation.
The National Civil Protection Authority confirmed that ever since the Everjets contract began, the company has been grounding the Kamovs for no justifiable reason, "for a total of 224 hours."
Most of these no-fly periods were in 2016 (159 hours) and in 2017 (65 hours) with each hour triggering a fine, as per the terms of the four year contract.
The Civil Protection Authority confirmed that the number of hours the helicopters are needed but are inoperable, are being totted up for this year but that fines have not yet been imposed because the accounts are not yet finalised.
Everjets is taking legal action after the National Civil Protection Authority shut down and sealed off the Kamov maintenance hangar, preventing further work by Russian aircraft engineers. The reason given was that spare parts had been going walk-about without permission. (HERE)