Bém says asked Haguess firm to change form of shares

Prague, Feb 7 (CTK) - Haguess firm will disclose its property structure and change bearer shares to registered shares over the Opencard project at its general meeting on February 17, Mayor of Prague Pavel Bem said in the Questions of Vaclav Moravec debate on the public Czech Television Sunday.

Bem (Civic Democrats, ODS) said he himself has called on the firm to do this and that the city will sign within a matter of hours an addendum to the contract that will ensure the economic advantageousness of the card.

The Opencard is a chip card used in Prague public transport payments and it is also to offer other services to its owners. The controversial project launched in mid-2008 has not yielded a crown to date, but cost millions of crowns.

Bem said today the price of one Opencard is to be lowered from the original 2300 crowns to 1370 crowns.

He said some 400,000 cards have been issued to date, Haguess will supply the remaining 250,000 for free.

This means that the price of all contracted 650,000 cards will be 1370 crowns per piece.

Petr Hulinsky (Social Democrats, CSSD), chairman of the Prague assembly financial committee, said, however, only about 260,000 of the 380,000 cards issued are active and added that the project is a "Trabant (car) for the price of a Rolls-Royce."

He said unless the contract with Haguess is fundamentally changed, the card "does not have title to life."

Bem said the city uncovered the disadvantageous character of the contract in 2008 when it was to start paying the firm for about 350,000 cards.

He said the price of 2300 crowns per card is relatively high compared with cards used elsewhere.

Bem said the city stopped payments for the cards and audits were launched.

"The Opencard is a classical example of an originally good idea turning into a big tunnel (or siphoning off of money)," Hulinsky said.

Bem reacted saying there is no tunnel because Prague has not lost its money.

Bem and Hulinsky conceded Sunday that an anonymous letter triggered the Opencard scandal.