Minuty s registrem – Díl 2. Technická správa komunikací Praha
Prague’s Troja Footbridge collapsed and the important Libeň Bridge was closed at very short notice. According to Court Expert Miloslava Pošvářová, the collapse was just the tip of an iceberg indicating a deeper system problem. TSK has neither a sufficient overview of the projects it administers nor a specific maintenance and repair plan for these. Responsibility for the current state of Prague Public Transport disrepair rests on Transport Councillor Petr Dolínek, and Prague Mayor Adriana Krnáčová has plenty of reasons for his immediate dismissal.
The Anticorruption Endowment (NFPK) and Reconstruction of State present a detailed account of links between ČSSD and ODS members and TSK contracts. Data in the Register of Contract shows that this city-owned joint stock company often issues below-threshold public procurement orders and the firm’s economic management gives room to a series of nagging questions.
TSK Prague’s mission is to supervise the technical condition of hundreds of Prague construction projects. But experts speak of a sorry state of their repair And maintenance. “I have furnished an expert opinion and examined the performance of both the Prague City Council and TSK. I have concluded that the City Hall, which runs TSK, has abandoned its management and control duties and only pays money to TSK,” reports Construction Court Expert Miloslava Pošvářová.
Where has CZK 1.2bn for bridge repairs gone?
The mayor’s transport councillor Petr Dolínek has told the iDNES.cz news website that the City invested 1.2 billion CZK in bridge maintenance and repair works through TSK in 2014-2017. He probably meant to say that City does not neglect the maintenance of its bridges. The question remains how economically this funding is used.
TSK hardly knows a thing or two about the projects it is supposed to manage. There is no list of investment in repairs in the period concerned. “We asked them how much was spent on the repair of bridges and they said they didn’t know, it’s somewhere in their files and the search would take four days etc., which seems to be quite outrageous given this is 2018. If you have no digital data and don’t know exactly how much money the bridges need, you actually cannot manage these assets,” Miloslava Pošvářová explains.
Intransparent public procurement
A closer examination of the Register of Contracts reveals that TSK has consistently entered in a large number of under-threshold public contracts – meaning those not exceeding six million crowns apiece. We can see in TSK at least three entities that take care of bridges. At the same time we can trace liaisons with the ODS or ČSSD. Their contracts are also just below six million crowns each and do not contain any information about a public tender. The Stromovka foot-bridge collapse was dealt with by the firm BM Construction, owned by a ČSSD local councillor in Zdice,” says independent analyst Dan Urbánek.
Links to ČSSD and ODS members
The firms connected with members of the ČSSD and ODS parties provide assistance to the specification of subsidies and other administrative and legal services. One of them is Jansta and Kostka Associates s.r.o., owned by influential ČSSD member Miroslav Jansta, chairman of the Czech Union of Sport. In summer, police charged Miroslav Jansta with manipulating subsidies and their allocation by the Ministry of Education.
A two-million-crown TSK contract went to the legal bureau owned by former public prosecutor Vlastimil Rampula, who previously worked as an attorney for behind-the-scenes player Ivo Rittig.
INCONEX a.s., of the ex-deputy education minister Michal Zaorálek also wrote contracts for TSK. “It was Michal Zaorálek, who prepared multimillion-crown contracts for TSK, the target of a major police raid last year,” notes Janusz Konieczny, analyst of the Anticorruption Endowment.
Coming full circle
EAG – Euro-Advisory Group s.r.o. also helps to procure contracts for TSK. The firm is co-owned by ČSSD activist Zdeněk Zadina from Hloubětín. “This man also found himself in the focus of last year’s media probe when it showed that hundreds of millions of crowns were siphoned off to obscure cleaning and maintenance firms in Hloubětín, associated with Zadina and other local ČSSD members,” analyst Dan Urbánek reports. Interestingly, too, Zdeněk Zadina also appeared in the firm, Ekomyčka s.r.o. alongside another ČSSD activist from Hloubětín, namely Ondřej Dolínek, a close relative of Deputy Mayor Petr Dolínek, who is responsible for TSK.
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Our video is part of Minutes with Register, a joint project of the Anticorruption Endowment and the Reconstruction of State anticorruption platform. The series consists of 10 analytical reports designed to graphically showcase the practical value of the Register of Contracts. The register is an important public control tool and our short videos aim to make the public acquainted with all the things people can glean from this file. Our first video helped to expose many dubious circumstances shrouding MP Radim Fiala (SPD).
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.
Reconstruction of State is a civic platform, associating people resolved to fight corruption and clientelism and demanding a greater transparency of public administration. It consists of almost 20 NGOs promoting principles of good governance, transparency and accountability in public administration.
To obtain further information, please contact:
Janusz Konieczny
NFPK Analyst
tel.: 604 270 132, e-mail: janusz.konieczny@nfpk.cz
Dan Urbánek
Independent Analyst
e-mail: dan.urbanek@protonmail.ch
