Ministers trade insults over lost millions

A public row between two senior Cabinet ministers has erupted over an audiovisual equipment contract made during the 2009 European Union presidency for which the state is thought to have overpaid by millions of crowns.

Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek (TOP 09) told daily Hospodářské noviny (HN) Feb. 3 that the government contract with private firm ProMoPro in 2009 stripped the state of hundreds of millions of crowns, and said Defense Minister Alexandr Vondra (Civic Democrats, ODS) was indirectly to blame.

Vondra oversaw the country's six-month EU presidency in his former role as deputy prime minister for EU affairs.

Government spokesman Jan Osuch puts the final cost of the audiovisual equipment order at 551 million Kč including VAT, although different figures have also been quoted by politicians, the media and the company itself.

Kalousek called the price paid an "outrageously and nonsensically high sum."

"Hundreds of millions of crowns were definitely in question," the minister said. " 'Margins' is a decent word, which is not suitable to use in [describing] this case," he added, a comment seen as hinting that ProMoPro gained the lucrative contract without a tender process.

Vondra hit back by pointing to the outlay by the Defense Ministry on military equipment from Omnipol, a company headed by an old friend of Kalousek's, who served as deputy defense minister in the 1990s.

"I don't know what margins worth hundreds of millions of crowns he means," Vondra insisted to HN Feb. 4. "[Margins] for Omnipol? What margins does Kalousek consider morally acceptable and what unacceptable?"

"I don't know, and I even cannot know, what margins the firms applied that assisted the Czech EU presidency," he continued. "But it is mathematically impossible for them to reach hundreds of millions."

In response to Vondra's remarks, Kalousek said he was disgusted that his Cabinet colleague was "spitting [at others] in an effort to defend himself."

Kalousek also intimated he would like Vondra to resign, saying he believed the ProMoPro case was more serious than the alleged corruption that surfaced at the Environment Ministry last December that resulted in the resignation of then Environment Minister Pavel Drobil (ODS).

'Uncollegial' remarks

Prime Minister Petr Nečas strongly criticized the war of words Feb. 4, calling Kalousek's remarks "uncollegial and unusual."

The case first surfaced Jan. 26 when an audit unit at the Finance Ministry said it had filed a criminal complaint about the suspicious order.

Vondra has since said he did not negotiate the contract nor was he even aware of it, claiming that Government Office head Jan Novák was responsible.

Radim Bureš, project manager at the anti-corruption NGO Transparency International, said although the results of the Finance Ministry probe were not made public in full, it seemed obvious that ill-gotten gains were involved in the case.

He told The Prague Post it was clear that "there was an apparent attempt by the company to gain an inappropriate profit from the whole event."

Bureš said it was hard to say if the overspend was "by mistake, laziness or perhaps some corruption," because the order was made at such short notice, with only one bidder and with little advance consideration.

"It must be quite clear at the very beginning of the preparations that such a company would be needed," Bureš said. "It's not an urgent matter that would just emerge from the middle of the presidency."

He said, however, he believed resignations were unlikely over the affair since it could not be proved any single person was responsible, unless potential firm evidence were to emerge that showed "Vondra really pushed Novák to sign the contract."

He pointed out that under the proposed changes to anti-corruption laws of Interior Minister Radek John (Public Affairs, VV), this kind of contract would not be allowed in future without a minimum of three bidders, something Bureš said would be "a very strong instrument" in the battle against corruption.

Bill Lehane can be reached at
blehane@praguepost.com