Gov't backs investigation into solar energy prices

Prague, Feb 27 (CTK) - The government has backed the Energy Regulatory Office (ERU) which is subject to investigation concerning purchasing prices of electricity from solar plants, Prime Minister Petr Necas told journalists after yesterday's government meeting.

There is a number of very strange circumstances which occurred between the years 2005 and 2011, he said. Necas believes that the problem does not concern only some changes in the law on renewable energy sources but also some regulatory steps taken by the ERU.

According to the ERU's audit, concrete culprits of the wrong setting of purchasing prices of electricity from solar plants cannot be traced.

However, reps of independent think tank Information Institute, who presented the results of the audit last week, ascribe the responsibility for setting the prices to the ERU's former management headed by Josef Firt.

ERU current head Alena Vitaskova earlier said that the wrong setting of the prices caused damage in the order of tens of billions of crowns.

The government has also tasked the Industry and Trade Ministry to prepare a plan that would ease the burden of the high electricity prices from Czech companies and households.

"We gave the ministry the task of working hard on further steps so that renewable energy sources, which are the pretext for the drastic growth in energy prices, stop to be a heavy load on the Czech economy," Necas added.

The audit, which evaluated the ERU's activities in 2005 to 2011, also says that the ERU responded with a delay to the situation in the photovoltaic segment when the costs of the construction of solar plants dropped sharply.

Vitaskova also in January asked the state attorney's office to check whether allegations of abuse of powers of a person in authority could be brought in the matter.

The government yesterday also approved an amendment to the law on the Czech Republic's property. Part of the amendment is based on the government's anti-corruption strategy.

The legislation introduces, among other things, central register of state property and central register of office buildings, Deputy Prime Minister Karolina Peake informed in a press release.

The registers will contain data on transfers of state property to other owners in electronic form.

Opposition Social Democrats (CSSD) said that the central register of state assets was a step in the right direction. "The government should know what property it has," CSSD chairman Bohuslav Sobotka told journalists.

The government says that the proposed changes are aimed at making administration of state property faster and more effective. There is newly the possibility to draw up a list of assets which the state does not need and the Office for Government Representation in Property Affairs (UZSVM) would then decide what to do with it, says the Finance Ministry's statement.

The government yesterday postponed discussion on an amendment to the small trade law that is to introduce mandatory licences for sale of hard alcohol till its next meeting.