Zimolovy veřejné zakázky

South Bohemia’s governor Jiří Zimola today announced he is stepping down. The reasons why he resigned might seem pretty banal and weak, in the Czech circumstances. However, the Anticorruption Endowment (NFPK) has an in-depth analysis of the history of South Bohemia’s public procurement moves since 2011, which betrays a long-term intransparent and obviously doctored practice, pursued by the South Bohemian Region under the tenure of Governor Zimola. It shows that the manner and results of awarding public contracts since Jiří Zimola’s arrival would seem to point that a regional “Opposition Agreement” was struck by mutual intent by the ČSSD and the ODS parties on the division of economic influence in this region between the local warlords who influence the conduct of these two political entities.

The media suspect Jiří Zimola of siphoning out from the Region the funds of the regionally-owned company, Jihočeské nemocnice a.s., which controls all regional hospitals. To boot, a holiday retreat for Zimola is reportedly being built by Martin Bláha, chairman of the board of the private company, Jihočeské nemocnice a.s., and owner of private firm Maternia s.r.o., the operator of one of the main Czech e-shops in the contact lens business (vasecocky.cz).

The NFPK analysis reveals, among other findings, that:

The South Bohemian Region under the tenure of Jiří Zimola employed external public procurement administrators manifestly connected with ODS regional politicians, who have invited suspect public contracts although the region could provide its own experts.
Under Jiří Zimola’s tenure in 2009-2013 the South Bohemian Region used the institute of nontransparent contract lottery. Dozens of orders amounting to hundreds of millions of crowns were polled. Governor Zimola, who has now resigned, must have known about and was alerted to these opaque lotteries. But the South Bohemian contract lottery has its unpleasant criminal overtones.
Governor Zimola promoted drawing contract bidders for the modernization of Class II and III roads to the tune of CZK 500,000,000 without VAT. The Police of the Czech Republic subsequently described these orders as tailored to suit the needs of a select club of handpicked firms.
Under Governor Zimola’s tenure, a 2.25-billion-crown tender was called for the operator of public transport in the Šumava district. The tender was tailored to suit exactly a company run—then and now—by local ODS bosses, including regional “godfather” Pavel Dlouhý, also known as the “Prince of Hluboká”.
Several significant tenders, organized by the South Bohemian Region, display sure signs of restricting competition by way of intricately set eligibility specifications, and the governor often attached ex-post addendums to the winning bids, which put a certain contractor in a privileged position against the others.
The latest major contract on the modernization of České Budějovice Airport for about 400 million CZK without VAT was virtually made to measure for a company possessing special authorization of the Civil Aviation Authority. There is only one such firm in the Czech Republic, associated with a senior ODS official.

“Many orders, placed by the South Bohemian Region, display a range of irregularities concerning both their specification and the history of the particular public procurement case. The sums we are talking about here are truly breathtaking. It would be good to know how much money would have been saved if standard proceedings had been observed. The Anticorruption Endowment will shortly file a criminal complaint, which comes complete with an exhausting analysis of these procurements,” says NFPK Lawyer JUDr. Miroslav Cák.

Details of the various public procurement contracts are available on the asking. Please contact us.

The Anticorruption Endowment is a fully independent initiative by people radically unprepared to accept a high level of corruption in state administration. One of our goals is to help expose corruption in state administration and support projects exposing corruption.

Contacts: JUDr. Miroslav Cák, NFPK Lawyer, tel.: 734 784 668, email: miroslav.cak@nfpk.cz