Procurement reform is almost as old as Bundeswehr and to claim that its protracted nature has only become a problem in this millennium misses the point. Take the Starfighter affair, Jäger 90, transformation of the BWB into the BAAINBw.
In addition, there were many rule changes, CPM (nov.) was introduced to speed up processes – co-developed by a large number of external consultants under the leadership of former McKinsey expert and State Secretary Kathrin Suder. When that didn’t speed things up, a “bus lane” was introduced for IT contracts. But nothing really changed, the “valley of death” of defence procurement remained.
So now Defence Minister Boris Pistorius is presenting his approach. “The top priority for all of us in the future will be the time factor,” Pistorius writes in his command letter “Speeding-up Procurement.” The minister explains: “To get a move on, we start where we have given ourselves regulations that restrict or slow us down more than the law demands. (…) The goal is first and foremost to realize the system so that it can be used by our soldiers as quickly as possible.” And the minister continues: “New development of equipment and devices will continue to be a part of our procurement. But the basic rule from now on is to procure market-available products whenever possible.”
However, this also shows that the minister apparently does not see a majority for a change in the legal situation, although the chairwoman of the Defense Committee of German Bundestag, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, has repeatedly called for a change in the procurement and tendering laws for military equipment. Exemption paragraphs also exist in other European countries, she said.
Dorothee Frank, Head of editorial team