Two Agrofert companies must return subsidies. They did not meet the status of small and medium-sized companies
Two subsidiary companies of the Agrofert holding must return subsidies that were intended for small and medium-sized enterprises. The court decision concerns the companies SPV Pelhřimov and Agro Plchov, in total about 383,000 crowns. The court is also dealing with lawsuits against ZS Vilémov and Zeos Brnířov due to the same matter. The server informs about it iRADIO. Until February 2017, Agrofert was owned by the then prime minister and chairman of the ANO movement, Babiš, who put his shares into trust funds due to the Conflict of Interest Act.
The lawsuit against all four companies was filed in February by the Agricultural and Forestry Support and Guarantee Fund. He gave them money to support crop and animal insurance. After last year’s audit, however, the fund discovered that it paid subsidies to some subsidiary companies of Agrofert without authorization. According to the management of the fund, they did not meet the status of small and medium-sized companies.
The company SPV Pelhřimov must therefore return 375,124 crowns, and Agro Plchov 8,470 crowns. “We are convinced that we proceeded in accordance with the law, but we do not comment on existing cases,” said Agrofert spokesman Pavel Heřmanský.
Because the same things are being conducted in three other court proceedings, which concern two other Agrofert companies. The fund filed two lawsuits against ZŠ Vilémov. One was rejected by the court, the other was only partially accepted. In both cases, the fund appealed. One lawsuit was aimed at ZEOS Brnířov, which was also only partially accepted by the court. Even in this case, the fund will file an appeal.
The server itself, that Agrofert does not want to return the older subsidy problem, most of its companies are not entitled to new ones. The applicant must not have arrears towards the state or specific institutions, which include the Support and Guarantee Agricultural and Forestry Fund. “As far as the company Agrofert is concerned, a large part of the subsidiaries cannot currently receive support under our programs due to non-fulfillment of the conditions,” the fund’s chairman, Josef Kučera, told the server earlier.
Holding Agrofert brings together almost 200 companies. It operates in the chemical industry, agriculture and food industry. In addition, it also owns forestry companies, which also do business in the segment of ground technology and engineering, logistics, transport and media.
In November this year, the European Commission decided that the Czechia can ask the European Union to release subsidies for Agrofert, which have been blocked until now due to the audit examination of the conflict of interests of former Prime Minister Babiš (ANO). The exceptions are two subsidies to the company Cerea and one subsidy to the company Fatra.