More charged in driver testing

Anti-corruption police have leveled charges against three more driving-test examiners and six more driving schools in its inquiry into extensive bribery in driver licensing in Prague.

Seventeen driving test examiners are suspected of having taken bribes of 2,000 to 5,000 Kč to pass license candidates, and face up to eight years in jail if convicted of bribery and abuse of their public powers.

Seven driving school operators have also now been charged in the scandal, which first came to light in May after a five-month investigation by the Unit for Combating Corruption and Financial Crime.

The new charges leveled in late July mean just two of the 19 people employed by the city as driving-test examiners at the start of the year have not been accused of a crime.

City Hall has said the officials facing charges are no longer employed as test examiners, without specifying if they were dismissed or if they resigned.

In the meantime, City Hall has been forced to hire 11 new testers to keep up with applications for new licenses. It says it will also soon seek more testers as part of its regular recruitment process.

Meanwhile, it has also emerged that two taxi inspectors from the same division of City Hall were fired in February over corruption charges, the Czech News Agency reported Aug. 1.

The two were dismissed and had a criminal complaint filed against them after it emerged they had allegedly sought bribes from taxi drivers who they had caught overcharging customers.  

In a separate development, stiffer punishments for driving offenses have been introduced whereby drivers who accumulate 12 penalty points must pass a psychological test as well as a fresh driving test before regaining their driving license.

It is thought offending drivers will have to attend group therapy sessions with other drivers who have been sanctioned for the same offense, like drunken driving or speeding.

The Transport Ministry says 33,000 drivers have been stripped of their licenses since penalty points were introduced five years ago, but that only 4,700 of them have been awarded any penalty points since they regained their license.

The ministry said the psychological test would help isolate repeat offenders. The change was introduced Aug. 1 as part of an amendment to the law on penalty points which saw one-point offenses replaced with fines but more serious offenses given more points.

Bill Lehane can be reached at
blehane@praguepost.com