RamonA Dones
New member
I don't remenber where I got this information. Its a little old now but I'm posting it anyway open to discussion. I pasted this article so I was deformated so I had to formated it again.
Wednesday, November 1, 2000
Pistol company misfires again
Production issues are latest setback in police contract
By Frantisek Bouc
A snafu over the long-awaited rearming of the Czech police force has triggered forced holidays for workers at a major pistol manufacturer, Ceska zbrojovka Uhersky Brod (CZ).
And the debate over CZ pistols rages on, with its chief
competitor Glock continuing to take potshots at the Czech
company's deal with the Prague government.
About 800 of CZ's 2,000 employees were sent home for one
week in late October because of a delay in production of
CZ-75D Compact pistols, which were supposed to be
finished and issued to officers earlier this year. The delay is
tied to technical problems that popped up when the first
batch of pistols was tested.
The employees' unwelcome holiday was the second labor
idling in two months; workers were sent home for three
days in mid-September as well.
CZ's chief executive, Jiri Martinec, said there could be more
forced holidays and production interruptions before the end
of this year.
CZ officials said the company is scrambling to solve the
pistols' problems, after which the weapons will undergo
another series of technical tests. Martinec said the company
will supply up to 5,000 pistols to the police by the end of
the year.
"The police pistol order is a matter of prestige for us,"
Martinec said. "We won't dismiss people due to delays in production," he said. "We'll just have some interruptions in our production."
CZ received a government contract in April to supply 46,000
pistols to the Czech police. The deal is worth 460 million Kc
($11.2 million).
Originally, the Ministry of Interior planned to receive around
5,000 new pistols by mid-September. The idea was to
update police sidearms before the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) and the World Bank meetings in Prague in late
September. By the end of 2000, CZ was supposed to deliver
7,000 pistols.
However, just days before the IMF summit, the CZ-75 guns proved unreliable in technical trials. The tests were
conducted by the Military Institute of Arms and Ammunition
in south Moravia.
According to police officers who participated in the tests,
bullets got stuck in the barrel and some target sights fell off
the pistols.
CZ representatives blamed the first problem on old and
poor-quality bullets. But the military institute's director,
Zdenek Kaspar, insisted "the CZ pistols have been tested in
the same way as any other weapons."
CZ technical director Josef Skrasek told The Prague Post
the new 9 mm police pistol is being revised to meet police
criteria. "The current version has been modified, following
some further testing," Skrasek said.
Czech police have been waiting for new guns since 1995,
when the Interior Ministry reported that about 90 percent of
police-issued sidearms were unsafe. The report followed
incidents in which police pistols accidentally discharged
after being struck or hitting the ground. The accidents
caused several injuries and at least one death. Police
Presidium spokeswoman Ivana Zelenakova said the last such
incident occurred about 18 months ago.
Long road
As a result of the accidents, the presidium decided that
officers could no longer carry loaded guns and that new
pistols should be ordered.
The guns that can accidentally discharge, which Czech
police have carried since the early 1980s, were
manufactured by CZ.
In April, the Cabinet passed a law that allowed CZ to receive
the huge police contract without a bidding process. CZ's
leading competitor for the job, the Austrian gunmaker
Glock, cried foul.
"The new law was created to make possible the direct
appointment of CZ to supply domestic products to the
Czech police," Glock's representative Markus Fritsch told
The Prague Post. "The new law gave way to a monopolist
acting within the Czech Republic today and also in the
future."
CZ was given the assignment after three unsuccessful
public tenders, which the Ministry of Interior eventually
canceled. Glock's bid in the third round was not considered
due to what the government alleged was a "formal fault" --
a missing bank guarantee.
Glock representatives insist they bmitted the bank
guarantee in time and fulfilled criteria for issuing a supplier
guarantee. However, a Glock statement claims "the
responsible official ignored our protest until the validity
date of this appeal expired."
Special treatment
By giving the job to CZ, observers said it appeared the
government was increasing control over the weapons
manufacturer. One newspaper report in September said the
National Property Fund (FNM) planned to secretly invest in
CZ so that the state could control the company and sell it in
the future. FNM reportedly withdrew from the deal after the
Finance Ministry refused to guarantee funds for CZ shares.
Zelenakova said that the Police Presidium was obliged to
follow the Cabinet's decision by ordering the new pistols
from CZ, despite past failures of CZ.
Glock, the world's leading supplier of law-enforcement and
army handguns, advertises that it is the only manufacturer
that gives customers a 40,000-round warranty on its police
pistols.
Frantisek Bouc's e-mail address is fbouc@praguepost.cz
Wednesday, November 1, 2000
Pistol company misfires again
Production issues are latest setback in police contract
By Frantisek Bouc
A snafu over the long-awaited rearming of the Czech police force has triggered forced holidays for workers at a major pistol manufacturer, Ceska zbrojovka Uhersky Brod (CZ).
And the debate over CZ pistols rages on, with its chief
competitor Glock continuing to take potshots at the Czech
company's deal with the Prague government.
About 800 of CZ's 2,000 employees were sent home for one
week in late October because of a delay in production of
CZ-75D Compact pistols, which were supposed to be
finished and issued to officers earlier this year. The delay is
tied to technical problems that popped up when the first
batch of pistols was tested.
The employees' unwelcome holiday was the second labor
idling in two months; workers were sent home for three
days in mid-September as well.
CZ's chief executive, Jiri Martinec, said there could be more
forced holidays and production interruptions before the end
of this year.
CZ officials said the company is scrambling to solve the
pistols' problems, after which the weapons will undergo
another series of technical tests. Martinec said the company
will supply up to 5,000 pistols to the police by the end of
the year.
"The police pistol order is a matter of prestige for us,"
Martinec said. "We won't dismiss people due to delays in production," he said. "We'll just have some interruptions in our production."
CZ received a government contract in April to supply 46,000
pistols to the Czech police. The deal is worth 460 million Kc
($11.2 million).
Originally, the Ministry of Interior planned to receive around
5,000 new pistols by mid-September. The idea was to
update police sidearms before the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) and the World Bank meetings in Prague in late
September. By the end of 2000, CZ was supposed to deliver
7,000 pistols.
However, just days before the IMF summit, the CZ-75 guns proved unreliable in technical trials. The tests were
conducted by the Military Institute of Arms and Ammunition
in south Moravia.
According to police officers who participated in the tests,
bullets got stuck in the barrel and some target sights fell off
the pistols.
CZ representatives blamed the first problem on old and
poor-quality bullets. But the military institute's director,
Zdenek Kaspar, insisted "the CZ pistols have been tested in
the same way as any other weapons."
CZ technical director Josef Skrasek told The Prague Post
the new 9 mm police pistol is being revised to meet police
criteria. "The current version has been modified, following
some further testing," Skrasek said.
Czech police have been waiting for new guns since 1995,
when the Interior Ministry reported that about 90 percent of
police-issued sidearms were unsafe. The report followed
incidents in which police pistols accidentally discharged
after being struck or hitting the ground. The accidents
caused several injuries and at least one death. Police
Presidium spokeswoman Ivana Zelenakova said the last such
incident occurred about 18 months ago.
Long road
As a result of the accidents, the presidium decided that
officers could no longer carry loaded guns and that new
pistols should be ordered.
The guns that can accidentally discharge, which Czech
police have carried since the early 1980s, were
manufactured by CZ.
In April, the Cabinet passed a law that allowed CZ to receive
the huge police contract without a bidding process. CZ's
leading competitor for the job, the Austrian gunmaker
Glock, cried foul.
"The new law was created to make possible the direct
appointment of CZ to supply domestic products to the
Czech police," Glock's representative Markus Fritsch told
The Prague Post. "The new law gave way to a monopolist
acting within the Czech Republic today and also in the
future."
CZ was given the assignment after three unsuccessful
public tenders, which the Ministry of Interior eventually
canceled. Glock's bid in the third round was not considered
due to what the government alleged was a "formal fault" --
a missing bank guarantee.
Glock representatives insist they bmitted the bank
guarantee in time and fulfilled criteria for issuing a supplier
guarantee. However, a Glock statement claims "the
responsible official ignored our protest until the validity
date of this appeal expired."
Special treatment
By giving the job to CZ, observers said it appeared the
government was increasing control over the weapons
manufacturer. One newspaper report in September said the
National Property Fund (FNM) planned to secretly invest in
CZ so that the state could control the company and sell it in
the future. FNM reportedly withdrew from the deal after the
Finance Ministry refused to guarantee funds for CZ shares.
Zelenakova said that the Police Presidium was obliged to
follow the Cabinet's decision by ordering the new pistols
from CZ, despite past failures of CZ.
Glock, the world's leading supplier of law-enforcement and
army handguns, advertises that it is the only manufacturer
that gives customers a 40,000-round warranty on its police
pistols.
Frantisek Bouc's e-mail address is fbouc@praguepost.cz