Mayor to fight charges of fraud

One of the mayors charged with defrauding the Regional Development Ministry of millions of crowns worth of flood damage subsidies is insisting all of the funds went directly into the city's coffers to repair its sewer system, not into her own pocket.

Anti-corruption police (ÚOKFK) charged nine mayors May 3 from the Ústí and Central Bohemia regions, as well as two construction contractors, for scheming to pocket millions of crowns in relief funds from fraudulent damage claims following the flash floods that ravaged their towns in July 2009.

The mayors - whose names and cities they represent are not being released by authorities - are accused of embezzling 29.5 million Kč in relief funds that was awarded to them based on exaggerated claims that the torrential rains had damaged municipal property. According to police, the mayors had applied for a combined 45.5 million Kč in additional funds which are also based on "grossly fabricated information" submitted "with the intent of causing gross damage to public finances."

The applications for the funds were received between October 2009 and June 2010.

"The accused supposedly acted in full awareness that the property of the districts and towns was not damaged in the specific period ... by any natural cause, thus the condition described in the applications cannot have been caused by the extraordinary and extensive flash floods," ÚOKFK spokesman Roman Skřepek said in a statement.

One of the embattled mayors, Věra Petrů, of the tiny village of Ploskovice, told The Prague Post she will fight the charges.

"Our subsidies were approved by the ministry, so I don't understand this at all," she said. "I don't understand how I could make up such a thing. I could understand if we used the money for something other than we demanded, but I never did that, and I never would do that."

Petrů, whose village is located about 55 kilometers from Prague and has a population of just 348, said all of the money she applied for was used to fix the sewer system, which had been damaged by the heavy rains that caused flooding throughout the region in 2009. The sewer system is now repaired. She added the ministry denied the village several million more crowns it requested for additional repairs.

"The ministry didn't even approve of everything we asked for," she said. "We didn't get money for road reconstruction because we were told that was too expensive. So my conscience is clean."

She said she has contacted her lawyer, and they have already filed complaints against the charges.

Petrů added she knows some of the other mayors charged are from the villages of Moldava, Huntířov, Pečky and Poříčany.

Skřepek said authorities do not believe the mayors acted in concert with one another.

"This is no organized gang. The mayors have not even known one another. They have been connected by only two people from a construction company," he said.

If convicted, Petrů and the other mayors charged face up to 10 years in prison.

- Klára Jiřičná contributed to this report.

Jack Buehrer can be reached at
jbuehrer@praguepost.com