Čtvrtek 28. března 2024, svátek má Soňa
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Audit exposes ‘gross misspending’ by Czech Interior Ministry

  17:56

Full audit of Interior Ministry spending reveals orders were divided in order to avoid having to call public tenders

Police are investigating an Kč 80 million cleaning contract awarded to the firm of ex-Interior Minister Ivan Langer‘s (pictured) friend while he was in office; whether the case will make it to court is quite another matter foto: IlustraČeská pozice

Snippets of information about misspending at the Interior Ministry have come to light sporadically since the beginning of this year when a full audit of expenses was begun. The daily Hospodářské noviny has now obtained a copy of the full audit, thanks to the freedom of information act, and on Friday revealed shocking details of downright wasteful spending and schemes to avoid scrutiny.

The audit revealed that between 2008 and 2010 when the ministry was headed by Ivan Langer (Civic Democrats, ODS) and Martin Pecina (Social Democrats, ČSSD), it was standard practice for larger orders for equipment and services to be divided into smaller orders of under Kč 100,000 in order to circumvent to rules which dictate that a public tenders must be held for orders above that amount.

During this period, for example, the company Euroconnect invoiced the ministry’s equipment service department 138 times for very similar sets of cutlery. Not one of those invoices exceeded the Kč 100,000 limit. Euroconnect invoiced the ministry’s equipment service department 138 times for very similar sets of cutlery.

Further the auditors discovered that when public tenders were held, the winning offers were uncannily close to the value of the order estimated by ministry officials — which must not be disclosed to bidders. “With 58 contracts checked, the winning bids were worth an average of 97 percent of the value estimated [by the ministry]. In 42 cases, the winning offer reached 95 percent of the estimate,” the auditors wrote in the report.

In one case, the Police presidium issued a tender for the construction of a children’s swimming pool at a recreation camp owned by the ministry. Ministry officials estimated the order would cost Kč 5,361,700, and the very next day the winning bidder, the company EMV, submitted its offer — for exactly that price. “The task as described in the tender did not contain information required to make a qualified price offer,” the auditors observed about that tender.  

Other misspending brought to light in the report includes:

  • 30 car radios for ministry cars complete with DVD players and removable displays costing Kč 1 million;
  • A microwave oven costing Kč 25,000;
  • Ministry official Hana Kosová was found to have given orders for superfluous audiovisual equipment for hundreds of thousands of crowns to a company whose Internet domain she owned;
  • Online vehicle tracking devices worth Kč 1.6 million bought in 2008 have never been used and are sitting in storage;
  • Kč 80 million contract for dry cleaning of police uniforms was given to the firm Dočista owned Tomáš Paclík — an old acquaintance of Ivan Langer, who is now the owner FC Viktoria Plzeň — without a public tender;
  • Protective suits for firemen for Kč 200 million.

The last of the cases listed is to be heard in court. Vladimír Jančík, from the general management of the fire service, stands accused of rigging the tender together with Jiří Dedek, the co-owner of the firm Deva F-M, which won the tender.

Autor:

PAMÁTKY TÁBOR, s.r.o.
Přípravář staveb/rozpočtář

PAMÁTKY TÁBOR, s.r.o.
Jihočeský kraj
nabízený plat: 40 000 - 50 000 Kč