Shortly before Christmas, police arrested three former top officials with the Roads and Motorways directorate (ŘSD), the state agency that coordinates construction and maintenance of the Czech roads network, on charges of corruption. On Friday, the daily Právo reported that during a search of the home of ex-ŘSD manager Michal Hala police found a well-hidden list of politicians in receipt of kickbacks.
“If the list is revealed and publicized, it could shake up the political scene because, according to Pravo’s information, it contains the names of people linked to the financing of political parties,” the left-leaning daily said in a front-page report. The list is now locked in a police safe to ensure the names and information therein are not leaked, it said, citing a well-informed source close to the investigation. “Currently all the information from the list is being analyzed and checked,” the source told Právo.
Hala, a former top manager in the ŘSD who controlled large financial flows in the agency, is a member of the South Moravia branch of the center-left Social Democrats (ČSSD), but his membership was suspended earlier this month in response to his arrest. He started in the branch in the late 1990s as its spokesman.
Právo reports that ČSSD chairman Bohuslav Sobotka distanced himself from Hala even before the ex-manager courted controversy in 2009 by splashing out Kč 750,000 on a lavish bash for 300 guests, including lobbyists and top players in the construction business, for his thirtieth birthday.
In addition to Hala, police have charged former ŘSD boss Petr Laušman, and a former lawyer for the agency, Robert Wolf, with corruption for leasing land plots adjacent to the D5 and D47 motorways on which petrol stations and service facilities were built at well below market rates. A fourth man, reported to be an entrepreneur, was also charged. According to Police Presidium spokesman Josef Ibehej, the scam could have cost the state up to Kč 264 million.
The three were among seven people detained in an operation on December 21, in which Laušman was reportedly caught red-handed exchanging promissory notes for Kč 15 million. The money trail reportedly leads to Cyprus.
