Czech Justice Minister Daniela Kovarova has suspended the launching of public tenders by the ministry, her spokeswoman Jitka Zinke told CTK Monday, adding that Pavel Šebek has resigned as the ministry’s investments department head responsible for some controversial tenders.
Several public tenders that the ministry put up recently met with a strong criticism from the media.
Kovarova’s measure does not apply to tenders linked to the drawing of EU subsidies, to those that have been scheduled since a long time ago and those launched due to previous contracts’ expiry.
Kovarova, a member of the outgoing Czech caretaker cabinet, decided not to fill the vacant post with anyone else, Zinke said.
On Friday, dailies Hospodarske noviny (HN) and Lidove noviny (LN) wrote that the Justice Ministry put up two tenders worth 266 million crowns in the wake of the May 28-29 elections, despite Finance Minister Eduard Janota’s request that the outgoing ministers should not launch new tenders any more.
The winner of the tenders is to be known in July, probably still before a new cabinet replaces the outgoing one, under Kovarova.
Apart from Janota, outgoing Prime Minister Jan Fischer, too, called on the ministers after the elections not to make crucial and irreversible decisions.
After the cabinet meeting Monday, Fischer told journalists that Kovarova informed the government about the circumstances of the controversial closely-watched tenders.
“I want to ask her about one or two other things,” Fischer said.
Kovarova said she has registered the appeal on her not to launch tenders.
“The Justice Ministry complies with it. On the other hand, however, I can’t admit for us to lose EU subsidies or fail to secure the operation of the judiciary,” Kovarova said.
HN wrote that the Justice Ministry put up the tenders on June 4. Through a tender worth 146 million crowns it seeks a manager of the Judicial Palace in Prague. The other tender, worth 120 million, is to select a company to exact debts in the justice sector.
Zinke told HN that the timing of the tenders in the wake of the elections is a coincidence. “Experts prepared the two tenders for a few months,” HN quoted her as saying.
HN pointed out that the anti-trust office (UOHS) recently stopped another tender, which the Justice Ministry launched previously in order to choose a company to operate the home arrest e-system. The UOHS wants to check whether the tender was launched in accordance with law.
In addition, shortly before the elections the Justice Ministry started looking for a supplier of new cars worth 91 million crowns, HN wrote.
Daily Pravo has questioned the effectiveness of the ministry’s recent purchase of more than 30 watches worth 426,000 crowns altogether. The watches reportedly feature the ministry’s logo and have been bought for the purpose of representation.
The current Fischer caretaker government was established in May 2009 as a way out of the government crisis. It consists of unaffiliated experts nominated by the two strongest parties. Kovarova is a nominee of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS).
Article Czech News Agency, PragueMonitor.com
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