Home » Entertainment » The BMW deal. How Romanian police justify buying hundreds of BMWs from Iohannis’ friend: police need powerful cars for street chases / 3 other car brands met technical requirements, but did not participate in the auction

The BMW deal. How Romanian police justify buying hundreds of BMWs from Iohannis’ friend: police need powerful cars for street chases / 3 other car brands met technical requirements, but did not participate in the auction

Romanian police leadership gave public justifications on Monday for the purchase of at least 300 BMWs from Automobile Bavaria, the company owned by Michael Schmidt, the friend of President Klaus Iohannis.

Questor Benone Matei, chief of the Romanian police, said in a press conference organized two days after President Klaus Iohannis had asked for clarification on the situation, that the police drafted the tender documents following requests from the traffic police and with the support of the Logistics department.

Benone Matei said that although there was only one bidder at auction, Automobile Bavaria, the technical specifications were valid for at least 3 other models. According to G4Media, these are models of the Mercedes, Jaguar and Alfa Romeo brands.

Asked by the G4Media reporter how they came up with these highly restrictive technical specifications, the police chiefs said the main purpose of special vehicles is to track down drivers who don’t stop at the signs and need to be followed. Police spokesman, Georgian Drăgan, said that in 2021 there were 3250 such cases, and this year – 2068.

Asked by the G4Media journalist if there are no other types of cars that allow effective traffic monitoring, the Police Headquarters stated that the technical requirements are minimal, requiring powerful cars capable of competing with the cars of over 2,000 cubic meters that entered in Romania after the first registration fee was abolished in 2017.

At the insistence of the G4Media reporter regarding the technical data deemed restrictive for the auction (automatic box with minimum 8 + 1 gears, etc.), the Georgian Drăgan stated that the technical specifications were requested by the traffic police.

Police chiefs also said they did not want to change the technical specifications even though no bidders appeared in the 2021 auction. “We resumed the auction this year with the same requirements because we could not lower the required quality, but we raised the purchase price because the market has changed”, replied Georgian Drăgan to the G4Media reporter’s question.

At the end of the conference, Commissioner Benone Matei, head of the Romanian police, accused the Europol union, which had accused a possible fraud on the tender, of “attempts to intimidate and pressure the police”.

When asked by the G4Media journalist if the total of 600 cars needed could not be divided into several lots, in order to also be able to buy cheaper special vehicles, especially at a time when the government was asking to reduce spending, the police chiefs replied negatively: “It is mandatory to have these specifications to ensure the safety of the police.”

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