Positive examples
12. prosince 2013 | Positive examples

Pokusil se uzdravit Dopravní podnik, vzápětí přišel o místo

Prague Transport Company (DPP) is a familiar turf for many Prague politicos. Fearless people who try to put things in order and alert the public on public contract manipulations are being fired and exposed to pressure bordering health damage. This is the story of Lukáš Wagenknecht, who was chief of internal audit for six months.

Lukáš Wagenknecht became the head of the DPP internal audit section in May 2013. It seemed at that time that the reputation and economic health of the city-owned company could not get any worse. DPP was burdened by disadvantageous contracts, past liabilities and ever new very unusual public orders, to which the Anticorruption Endowment (NFPK) had duly pointed anyway.

Lukáš Wagenknecht zeroed in on various DPP sore spots, but focused on one of the most sensitive issues, namely the completion of the Metro Line A connecting the stations Dejvická and Motol.Public procurement laws were broken and the DPP will in all likelihood be fined 4.2 billion CZK. In addition, the company could forfeit 11 billion crowns’ worth of long-term loans from the European Investment Bank because of its arbitrary approach to the commissioning of public contracts.

Lukáš Wagenknecht provided a detailed audit report on the completion of Metro Line A so as to ascertain the reasons why serious mistakes were made and who was responsible for the faults. This is very likely why somebody attempted to veer him off his highway lane and the man subsequently received police protection. In spite of all odds, Lukáš Wagenknecht carried on with an analysis of the sensitive issue and was finally sacked without it being told to the DPP Board of Supervisors.

The project of completion of Metro Line A is managed by the company IDS, which has umbilical links with Prague’s ruling political party, TOP 09. On the IDS payroll in this particular case is the leader of Prague’s TOP 09 cell, František Laudát, while IDS economic advisor Jiří Pařízek until June of this year is TOP 09’s transport councillor. The NFPK has learned, anyway, that because of Jiří Pařízek’s connections, the DPP’s new director Jaroslav Ďuriš has a very limited scope for making decisions.

Jaroslav Ďuriš terminated Lukáš Wagenknecht’s employment contract one day before the expiry of his trial period. There are all indications that Ďuriš acted on purpose, namely to get rid of Lukáš Wagenknecht before he discovers more. It would appear that the DPP has no use for someone who stubbornly tries to impartially and dispassionately tackle the firm’s internal problems. It’s bad news for Prague and its public transport company.

References (in Czech)