AUDIT

The Finance Ministry awarded consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) an important tender Feb. 15 to audit how the Czech Republic draws money from European Union funds. A clean audit from PwC is needed before the Czech Republic can access its EU funds from 2007 to 2013. The country stands to gain nearly 100 billion Kč ($4.6 billion) during that time. PwC expects the audit to run at least until the end of the year.

Ivan Kuleba, Ukrainian ambassador to the Czech Republic, proposed a plan Feb. 15 between the two countries that would allow Czech businesses to hire Ukrainian workers without requiring work permits. Many Ukrainians have been working in the Czech Republic illegally since 2002, when an employment agreement between the two nations expired. The Interior Ministry estimates at least 50,000 Ukrainians work in the Czech Republic illegally, and other estimates put the number four times higher.

Czech car manufacturer Škoda Auto is considering making a cheap sedan that can be sold to emerging markets such as China and India, company chairman Detlef Wittig told the daily Hospodářské noviny Feb. 19. The company is coming off a record year in 2006, in which it sold more than 556,000 cars and grew 12.5 percent year on year.

The Czech agricultural trade deficit grew 30 percent to 32.7 billion Kč in 2006, according to data released by the Agriculture Ministry Feb. 16. Exports rose 1 percent, but imports increased 8 percent to 111.8 billion Kč. The increased reliance on imports was attributed to a poor grain harvest, Agricultural Chamber President Jan Veleba said. The grain harvest in 2006 fell 16 percent from the year before.

The Czech Bailout Agency (ČKA) sank into the red again in 2006 following its first-ever profit in 2005, a ČKA spokesman told the Czech News Agency (ČTK) Feb. 15. The agency lost 1.3 billion Kč in 2006 after posting a 1.4 billion Kč profit the year before. The loss will be covered by ČKA reserves and will not require any more state funds.

The Constitutional Court overturned a law Feb. 15 that would have enabled customers of three bankrupt banks to receive compensation for their losses, ČTK reported. Clients could have received 3.7 billion Kč from the Deposit Insurance Fund thanks to a rider attached to a bill last year. The court claimed the law broke ownership rights and rights to court protection and was unclear.

Landlords said they’d be willing to withdraw a lawsuit against the Czech Republic if the government abolishes rent control and pays them 50 billion Kč, a lawyer for the landlords said. The landlords are suing the state in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, claiming rent control is unconstitutional. The court has already ruled against Poland on a similar complaint.

One in three truck drivers has avoided part of the electronic toll road at least once, according to an anonymous poll conducted by Czech Television Feb. 18. Two in three truck drivers disagreed with the toll, which went into effect Jan. 1.