Přibývá statečných

Like in the past years, the Anticorruption Endowment has awarded its annual Prizes for Courage. Once again the awardees are people who were not afraid to blow the whistle on corrupt conduct regardless of harsh private consequences. Leo Steiner has exposed dubious practices at Regional Operational Programme Northwest, and František Mráček alerted the public to irregularities in the management of funds in the North Bohemian Region.

Leo Steiner attempted to improve the image of the Office of Regional Operational Programme Northwest, where he was director of the Programme Management Section. Before long, however, he found out that the programme, designed to distribute 19 billion CZK over a period of seven years, was set up from its inception to allow illegal embezzlement of funds. Or theft of funds, to quote Leo Steiner, since the ROP northwest was one big asset-stripping endeavour. As a member of a monitoring committee, which was supposed to supervise the allocation of funds, he revealed his findings that pointed to an unbelievably massive, systematic, mafia-style theft of EU funds, thus starting a spiral of investigations, media statements, and naked threats.

František Mráček, former head of the Public Transport Department of the Central Bohemian Regional Office, pointed out nonstandard practices in the management of regional assets, including a dubious investment in software for the provision of stipends on school fare tickets, and suspect irregularities in the provision of public transport subsidies in the Central Bohemian Region. Instead of gaining recognition for that, František Mráček faced harassment, pressure and ultimately the loss of employment.

“I am happy we have succeeded for the fourth consecutive year to reward the people who did not hesitate to bring their hide to the market, and reported corruption or alerted the public to machinations with public funds. Their courage is an inspiration for all of us,” says Karel Janeček, one of the cofounders and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Anticorruption Endowment (NFPK).

In the past, the Prize for Courage as awarded to Libor Michálek (corruption in the State Environment Fund), Ondřej Závodský (suspect contracts at the Service Facility for the Ministry of the Interior), Renata Horáková (corruption at Znojmo Town Hall), Jakub Klouzal (overpriced IT orders by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Věra Ježková (probable frustration of investment by parastatal company ČEZ), Martin Konečný (dubious clemencies granted by President Václav Klaus), Jiří Chytil (the OpenCard Case), and Vladimír Sitta, Jr., (Prague Public Transport Company case).

The Anticorruption Endowment (NFPK) is an independent initiative of people gravely concerned over the high level of corruption in state administration bodies. Chief among our goals is to support the exposure of corrupt conduct in state administration and the projects that expose corruption in general.

Please contact: Linda Majerová, NFPK Project Manager, tel.: 734 315 353, e-mail: linda.majerova@nfpk.cz, www.nfpk.cz