It’s money for Prague 3, it sounds in the recordings. Who should they end up with?
A week ago, we published the first part of a report on a suspicious construction contract in Prague 3. Two companies in the association – Geosan group and Edikt – were supposed to increase the price of the reconstruction of a panel house in Ondříčková Street by up to 2018 to 2020 several tens of millions of crowns, which came from the budget of the Prague 3 district.
The works, which, according to him, should actually cost about 60 to 65 million, eventually cost tax fees of almost 100 million crowns.
“The increase is mainly in exchange. The house has a floor plan of 5,000 square meters, but the statement is approximately 12,000 square meters. And they were also invoiced, even if the reality is half, or even less than half, “a former employee of the Edikt Kamil Š described for Seznam Zprávy one of the ways in which, according to him, companies tried to earn on the contract so-called sideways.
There are also sound recordings that company representatives have agreed on ways to invoice fictitious work. They were bought by Kamil Š. At meetings, which he participated as a construction preparer.
For example, Radek M., a former leader of the bidding team at the Geosan Group, can be heard on one of them. “I told them: Gentlemen, our calculation is based on that. That weekly items in total sales 6.8 plus 1.7 – that’s…, that’s some 8.5, to almost nine million. There’s only going to be a minimal part of it, and now let’s just say what, right? Because the item reads’ reprofiling of concrete surfaces up to 50% ‘, so we’ll just make mine 1% of it and simply invoice the whole item,’ you can hear how you can see in the introductory video.
When we contacted the main actors from these recordings, ie the people who are said to have been introduced to the plan, they all responded in form. No one has seen, heard, will not comment.
The whole case concerns above-limit contracts for construction work in the total value of 800 million crowns, which was announced in Prague 3 in 2017, where a relatively broad coalition of TOP 09, ODS, CSSD and Choice for the City ruled at the time.
The tender was won by five construction companies, which then had to compete directly for individual constructions within the minitenders over the next four years; in our case it was the reconstruction of a block of flats in Ondříčková street, which was eventually won by the association of companies Geosan group and Edikt.
This model is not unique in Prague, its proponents argue mainly at a faster rate of project completion, critically drawing attention to the risk of cartels.
“The model through the framework agreement is not completely transparent, or there is a lot of room for potential variants of the cartel agreement or something like that,” thinks Jan Bartko, councilor of Prague 3 for Pirates, for example. “It simply came to our notice then. The community of companies that was in that contract could, in theory, very easily agree on who was below any offer price. And divide the individual buildings among themselves. “
Let us recall that in the recordings that the editors managed to obtain from a former Edikt employee, it will be said several times directly or indirectly that part of the money from the contract is intended for Prague 3.
“This is money for Prague 3, so let’s just compare it,” says Radek M., then still a representative of Geosan, in connection with the need to “process” an independent construction supervisor so as not to poke at the contract.
The recordings do not contain any specific name of the person who should receive the money, nor the name of any political entity who, for example, could have created framework agreements to politically sponsor or react the course of the public tender.
This could be clarified by a police investigation that has been going on for more than a year.
The editors tried to confront all the people who were in some way connected with the contract – whether by virtue of a job position or a political position.
Vladislava Hujová, a former mayor from TOP 09, has signed a contract for Prague 3 under the contract for the reconstruction of a block of flats in Ondříčková Street. “So I wasn’t one hundred percent,” she said categorically, wishing she knew anything. “It went through the investment department, it went through the commission that selected the best contract, it was advised to sign it from the department. Then the council voted, I had one vote on the council, and even if I was against – and I had no reason to be against, when there was a recommendation from the department, the council voted and I was basically obliged to sign it. “
Another person that is worth mentioning is the former deputy mayor of Prague 3 from the CSSD, Ivan Holeček, who had investments under him, and therefore a controversial contract. But he disappeared at the 2019 rosary under a minimum of unclear circumstances, sent an SMS to the family that he wanted to kill himself. He is still missing.
The fact that he was a great supporter of the framework agreements, on the basis of which the contract was subsequently implemented, is evidenced by his speech at the inaugural meeting of the council in the autumn of 2018, when the town hall was taken over by the new leadership. One of the first decisions was to terminate this framework agreement. “What I was afraid of just happened here. That new leadership will come will be new and better and transparent and who knows everything. And the only thing that will lead to that will be researched and reviewed here for two years and nothing will happen at all. The framework agreement you are relying on is very advantageous, because there are frozen prices two years ago, so it is advantageous for the city district. Please don’t invent bullshit, “Ivan Holeček was upset in December 2018.
How does the current mayor of Prague 3 for TOP 09 and STAN Jiří Ptáček remember this? “When the current management took office at the town hall, a tender for construction contracts worth another half a billion crowns had previously been announced. By this I mean contracts that have again been competed under this framework agreement. And basically, at the first meeting of the council, today’s district council, this selection process was stopped. We went to the polls saying that we wanted to end this framework agreement. What was very strange was that from the original representatives who got into the opposition, it was something they perceived very negatively, the personal involvement was striking, “Ptáček describes.
It is clear at the moment that other construction contracts in Prague 3 will already run according to a different scenario – a classic tender for each building separately.
At the moment, according to information from the editorial office, the police had an expert report prepared, which confirmed in part the words of a former employee of the Edict on the invoicing of fictitious work.
We will continue to monitor the case.