Prague, Aug 20 (CTK) – Adam Vojtech, an adviser to Czech Finance Minister Andrej Babis (ANO), yesterday dismissed having anything to do with the case of suspected corruption linked to the state-run Czech Post (CP) company, he wrote to CTK in a press release.
Vojtech’s name has been mentioned in connection with the case by Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (Social Democrats, CSSD).
The case erupted last week when the media wrote that Kamil Choc, from the CSSD’s Central Bohemian organisation, demanded a bribe of three million crowns from businessman Lukas Cadek who has been suing the CP for more than 20 million crowns.
The bribe was to allegedly go to the CSSD coffers and to Chovanec, under whom the CP falls. Both the CSSD and Chovanec dismiss this.
According to some information, the case is linked to a tender for the supply of security services to the CP.
Chovanec previously said Vojtech got involved in the case through his communication with Cadek.
“He allegedly made promises to him [Cadek]. This is what Cadek asserts at least. It is necessary to clear up the affair and tell people where the truth lies,” Chovanec said on Czech Television.
Vojtech dismissed the accusation.
“I categorically reject Interior Minister Milan Chovanec’s assertion that I have something to do with the CP case. I met Lukas Cadek twice. On parting with him, both times I stated that I cannot help him anyway,” Vojtech said.
He said Cadek had contacted the Finance Ministry to apply for a meeting with Minister Babis and for the ministry’s help in his dispute with the CP.
“The Finance Minister did not meet Cadek and he assigned me to do so,” Vojtech wrote.
Later yesterday, Babis stood up for Vojtech.
“Cadek wanted to meet me and I sent him to see my adviser who heard him. After Cadek sent an sms message to me, I wrote to him that he should file a criminal complaint,” Babis said on Czech Television (CT).
Vojtech said his first meeting with Cadek took place on March 10.
“At the meeting, Cadek presented…his current dispute with the CP and asked whether the [Finance] Ministry could provide any help to him. I told him…that the Finance Ministry can do nothing about it as the CP falls under the Interior Ministry and that this is a commercial dispute…, which is up to court to solve,” Vojtech wrote.
At the other meeting, in late June, Cadek reportedly told Vojtech that he had been addressed by Chovanec and they met.
Vojtech wrote that Cadek told him he had also been addressed by alleged “envoys” of Central Bohemian Region Governor Milos Petera (CSSD), who described the links between the CP and the CSSD to him.
“Cadek told me, as he told journalists, that he had recorded the latter meeting on his cell phone…I advised him to turn to the police, if he believes that a crime was committed. He refused to do so, saying this has no sense in a situation where the police are interlinked with Interior Minister Milan Chovanec,” Vojtech wrote.
He has not been in contact with Cadek, nor has he ever made any promises to him, he added.
($1=24.475 crowns)
rtj/dr/ms,kva
