Agriculture ministry will not extend current firefighting chopper lease

The Agriculture Ministry on Monday decided against extending a current contract leasing firefighting helicopters, instructing the relevant department to launch a new tenders process for the 2024-2025 period.

The decision was taken during a meeting between Agriculture Minister Petros Xenophontos and the Department of Forests, to discuss measures ahead of the new fire season – which officially starts on May 1.

The meeting focused on the availability and safety of airborne firefighting platforms.

It was decided that the government will not exercise the option for extending into 2024-2025 the current lease contract for helicopters. Instead, the Department of Forests is to immediately initiate a call inviting expressions of interest, so that the tender – and a new lease contract – is awarded before the 2024 fire season.

At the same time, the minister instructed the Department of Forests to appoint the members of the tenders receiving committee – tasked with checking that all required certificates for the helicopters are provided by the bidders.

It comes in the wake of last week’s debate in parliament, where it was alleged that firefighting choppers currently being used are substandard and may not even be airworthy.

Auditor-general Odysseas Michaelides told MPs that the helicopters leased lack water-dropping sensors, or Blue-Sky satellite tracking technology, or a system alerting of potential impacts on cables.

Michaelides also referred to an incident report prepared by a member of the police force. The officer in question had declined to sign off on the choppers, citing the absence of key certificates.

The officer himself told MPs that the police asked – but never got – to see an insurance certificate, an operator’s certificate, a logbook for maintenance and flight hours, and an air operator certificate.

And whereas an airworthiness certificate was provided, the document was of “unknown origin,” the officer said.

Despite this, parliamentarians heard, in August of 2022 the tenders receiving committee deemed these issues as “minor deviations” from the tender specifications and gave the nod to the helicopters’ delivery.