Coordinating price quotes in Baltimore
- The Baltimore Project was a large-scale ELTA project designed for a client in Singapore (e.g., p. 445, paras. 18-26). Kniturk, who, as stated above, served as a buyer and head of the buyers team at Elta (p. 312, paras. 2-23), acted on behalf of Elta Procurement vis-à-vis the suppliers in the Baltimore project. Other sources in ELTA procurement, including Shkedi, head of components procurement and computing at Elta, who was in charge of KinNetwork, and Zaguri, head of the procurement administration at Elta, who was in charge of Shkedi, also referred in their testimony to procurement proceedings regarding the Baltimore project, especially the later stages of the privileged coordination.
- It was Harel who won the Baltimore Combat Unit. The defense raised claims regarding various flaws in the proceeding conducted by ELTA. Among other things, the defense argued that Harel's win was known in advance and that here too it was a competition for appearances only. In this context, the defendants also seek to build on the events that occurred after the submission of the proposals, the subject of the privileged coordination, and the fact that in the framework of the procurement proceedings at Elta, an exemption from a tender was granted several months after the tender. As we shall see below, these arguments should not be accepted and do not legitimize the matter.
- At the outset, we will present the picture that emerges from the evidence that was brought in relation to the Baltimore Commander and the privileged coordination of the proposals.
- In January 2010, Knitwerk approached a number of companies – Wee, Harel, Triple C and EMET – asking for quotes for the Baltimore project.
Prior to the application, and at the beginning of January 2010, there was an exchange between the project personnel and ELTA Procurement (Kinitürk) and between ELTA Procurement and Maman (Peretz) in relation to the project's requirements and in relation to the content of the request to be issued to the suppliers in a request for price quotes (P/6). The project personnel wrote an SOW document defining the content of the required equipment, work, and warranty; the project asked to be based on IBM equipment; the project contacted ELTA Procurement in order to issue an RFI to the suppliers; ELTA Procurement made it clear that the solution would be selected in full cooperation with the procurement; the project personnel requested to summon the potential suppliers to a meeting with Elta in order to ensure that the requirements were understood and to answer questions; KinWire informed Peretz that ELTA Procurement intends to apply for quotes to Harel, Wee, Triple C and EMT; and Peretz discussed various points that should be demanded of the suppliers in the quotations they will submit (N/6, correspondence dated January 3, 2010 (where it was noted that a SOW document is attached) and correspondence of January 5, 2010).