The security agency Sub S.A., which former Detective Hynek Vlas for three years co-owned with the new Interior Minister Jan Kubice, won a tender three weeks ago that was organised by the Ministry of Transport, according to an interview Vlas gave daily Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD). Kubice announced on April 21 that he would give up his interest in the security firm upon taking over the Interior Ministry, and the security company’s webisite no longer mentions Kubice.
The tender was for providing consultancy services during the relocation to Prague of the European Union agency GNSS Supervisory Authority (GSA), part of the Galileo navigational satellite system. Security for the Galileo system is important because it includes special applications that will be used by the armed services.
Security experts speculate that Sub S.A. won the state tender thanks to personal contacts between Vlas and Kubice. The director of the Space Technologies and Satellite Systems Department at the Ministry of Transport is Blanka Besserová, née Kosinová, who at the beginning of April married Minister of Culture Jiří Besser (TOP 09). Besserová was press spokeswoman for the Organized Crime Detection Unit (ÚOOZ) when Kubice headed the unit, and Vlas was his deputy for criminal proceedings. “He is one of very few people for whom I would work again if he made me an offer,” Besserová said last week.
Vlas says he sees no problem in relation to the state tender called by the of Transport Ministry. “I suppose you’ll now rummage around for any dirty laundry you can find. So let me put it on record that I have never met [former Transport Minister Vít] Bárta and have never had anything to do with [his security firm] ABL. It is simply coincidence. And I am surprised at how many experts, genuinely fair and upstanding people, work at the Ministry of Transport,” Vlas replied when asked who organized the tender. ‘They wanted us to screen 80 GSA employees on the level of confidential and highly confidential.’
According to information received by Czech Position from the Ministry of Transport, Sub S.A. was successful because Kubice and Vlas are past masters at drawing on their experience communicating with the state security apparatus.
“The National Security Authority (NBÚ) set unbelievably tough conditions. They wanted us to screen 80 GSA employees on the level of confidential and highly confidential. This meant we were obliged to find someone who could reduce these excessive demands,” a Transport Ministry source who wished to remain anonymous told Czech Position.
“We are involved in consultation activities, and I am responsible for security in the broadest sense of the word, from employees to information. We cooperate with Brussels and the NBÚ, and we will probably work alongside the Ministry of Defense and security services in the future,” Vlas told MfD. He added that his agency would receive several hundred thousand crowns for consultating activities stretching over several months.
