Nezákonné losovačky a „šnečí finta“ ÚOHS
The Anticorruption Endowment (NFPK) has warned of a long-term absurd practice that allows the Office for the Protection of Competition to thwart any business complaints about the breach of public procurement rules by employing what we call “Snail Trick”. This obstruction is made perfectly possible by long delays between ÚOHS rulings and the quick pace of signing an agreement between the principal and the “chosen” applicant. However, ÚOHS summarily dismisses dissenting parties as smart money people. Antitrust office ÚOHS believes it is perfectly okay to wield uncontrolled and unchallenged power to decide if it addresses or dismisses a business complaint. In this way, about 250 complaints, conservatively valued at about 25 million crowns, were sent down the drain. The latest example of complaint voided in this manner dates from 19 April 2017. It’s a trick, but it works. NFPK brings you another example of a case “resolved” by means of the Snail Trick.
The NFPK has recently informed its readers about the obliteration of an illegal lottery for the 300 million CZK contract on Roads II/150 Bohemia and Moravia Road Envelopment.
This is not the only illegal lottery that ÚOHS has covered by its Snail Trick. The same goes for a plethora of illegal lotteries, including:
- Green Cycling Route from Ploučnice to Osečná section – Noviny pod Ralskem (Průrva) for CZK 46.5 million
- RASPENAVA – ROAD REPAIR WORKS, FLOODS 08/2010 for CZK za 172.6 million
The ÚOHS kept complaints about an illegal lottery in its coffers for half a year. The office chairman took another three months to rule on the case.
In both instances, ÚOHS and its chief Petr Rafaj stated almost a year later and with their conscience clear that the lotteries were regular and transparent. A district court then ruled that the ÚOHS decision was illegal and the lottery itself was quite non-transparent.
But instead of acting to end the practice of murky and opaque lottery exercises, the ÚOHS continued its habit of snail-pace treatment of complaints and ultimately buried complaints with the use of its Snail Trick.
Interestingly, the lotteries in all the above-mentioned cases were managed by a firm that performed the same task in the “Rath Case” (the firm VE-ZAK s.r.o.). In case of two lotteries mentioned above, the contract proceedings were organized by the firm, Allowance s.r.o., featuring businessman David Libiger, a former assistant of MP Jaroslav Foldyna (ČSSD).
The Anticorruption Endowment (NFPK) works to change laws so the Snail Trick no longer applies, and specifically proposes then following steps:
a) The deadline within which it is not possible to breach the ban on effecting a contract (blocking deadline) shall be applicable until an ÚOHS ruling on the complaint in first degree, which is common in the neighbouring countries,
b) ÚOHS shall decide in all circumstances about a complaint lodged and rule if the law was broken.
The Anticorruption Endowment will shortly reveal details about the further contracts marred by the “Snail Trick”.
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
