Jiří Chytil

Brave official charged instead of receiving protection

The OpenCard case reveals a story of personal courage with a very bitter aftertaste. Former City Council official Jiří Chytil in 2009-2010 helped police investigators as a secret witness to disentangle threads leading to the political background of a problematic contract with the company, Haguess. However, a change of the investigating team led to a change of heart and Chytil with another four officials found themselves facing criminal charges.

Chytil smuggled key evidence from the Prague City Hall’s Department of Information Technologies and significantly helped the then investigator, Zdeněk Ondráček, to score progress on the case. That was probably why faced intimidation early in 2013, with his apartment repeatedly burglarized as somebody was searching for documents and evidence.

The case of alleged manipulation of a tender for the OpenCard Project started in the autumn of 2009, when Deputy Jana Ryšlinková (Green Party) filed a criminal complaint against an unknown delinquent. The OpenCard project, whose costs climbed from 165 million CZK for the pilot project to an astronomical sum in excess of 1.2 billion CZK, found itself in the focus of anticorruption police.

In the presence of witnesses, Investigating Officer Dušan Lavička promised to grant a secret witness status to Jiří Chytil, if he interacts with the police. Regrettably, Lavička left the team after a couple of months and the original agreement ceased to apply. Quite irrationally, Chytil found himself facing accusations in August 2011 and his identity was disclosed to the City Council and the media.

At present Chytil, who was promptly fired from the City Council after his identity was leaked, is facing up to eight years in jail for alleged breach of binding rules of economic conduct and his duties as an administrator of foreign assets. According to prosecution, the defendants caused 67 million crowns’ worth of damage to the City of Prague.

According to plans hatched by Prague’s City Council at that time, 2005 saw the emergence of the Prague Citizen’s Card idea. This electronic card was to have fulfilled a number of purposes and should have saved significant funds. In 2013 the OpenCard serves as a public transport pass, passport to Municipal Library branches and can be used in some types of parking meters. Moreover, existing contracts ensure the firm Haguess the exercise of copyright on software and nobody can interfere with its service system.

In March 2013, ten members of the Prague City Council, including former Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda and his successor Tomáš Hudeček, had charges brought against them. In April 2012 they approved the signing of two contracts with the firm Haguess, concerning support for a system valued at about 74 million CZK. According to police, an open public tender should have been called. However, accusations have largely bypassed the political officers of the day, namely Mayor Pavel Bém and his aides Petr Hulinský, Rudolf Blažek and Milan Richter.