"We've come across several controversial issues, but we haven't compiled any evidence of the government's wrongdoing in the privatization," said Pavel Hojda, a member of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM) and chairman of a special commission set up three months ago to look into the matter.

The government originally sold its 63 percent stake in Unipetrol to Poland's PKN Orlen for 11.3 billion Kč ($480 million) in May 2004. Controversy surfaced when a Polish daily newspaper last summer raised the possibility of corruption: Articles alleged that early in the process PKN Orlen had sold some holdings to its privatization partner (Czech fertilizer maker Agrofert) at exceedingly low prices in return for that company's pull inside the Czech government.

The Polish daily Rzeczpospolita wrote that PKN Orlen's partnership with Andrej Babiš — the head of Agrofert and a close friend to former Czech Prime Minister Stanislav Gross — helped the company win the privatization deal.

The scandal stretched on. Last September, a TV Nova undercover camera caught Zdeněk Doležel, an aide to Prime Minister Jiří Paroubek, seemingly demanding 5 million Kč from Polish lobbyist Jacek Spyra for introductions to top Czech politicians — casting more suspicion on the role that influence played in Unipetrol's sale.

The government's investigation scrutinized the choice of PKN Orlen as the privatization winner because its bid was not the highest among companies — MOL of Hungary, British-Dutch group Royal Dutch/ Shell, Penta of Slovakia and KazMunaiGaz of Kazakhstan — vying for the sale.

The investigation concluded that the Doležel incident was not directly related to the Unipetrol privatization. It also concluded that Finance Minister Bohuslav Sobotka and Industry and Trade Minister Milan Urban, who both said they could not remember how they voted in the privatization, are telling the truth.

But the opposition Civic Democrats (ODS) and its junior coalition partner, the Christian Democrats, say the matter has merely been swept under the carpet by the Social Democratic Party and KSČM.