Prague, Jan 5 (CTK) – Vratislav Mynar, head of President Milos Zeman’s office, has filed his financial disclosure after five years, during which he refused to do so, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) wrote on Friday.
Mynar owns 125 plots of land as well as houses in Prague and Brno on exclusive addresses worth tens of million crowns.
Mynar also wrote in his property statement that he owns shares of the petrochemical group Unipetrol and Prazska teplarenska (PTAS), Prague’s major heat supplier, and he has 13.5 million crowns on his bank accounts, MfD writes.
He also lent tens of million crowns to his own companies.
Mynar was only forced to make his financial disclosure by a court decision which confirmed last year that the duty to disclose one’s property also relates to the head of the Presidential Office, MfD writes.
MfD writes that on the paper’s insistence, the Justice Ministry included Mynar’s property statement in the new register. Thanks to it, one can verify whether politicians and senior civil servants became rich during their terms of office, it adds.
However, since Mynar never released his property statement before, the comparison is impossible, MfD writes.
Officially, Mynar stated in the document that he owned five companies which suffered a loss of over 15 million crowns when he held the post.
On the other hand, Mynar was lending money to his own companies which now owe him over 60 million crowns.
Mynar said he had saved the money long before he was appointed the head of the Presidential Office.
“I had a business in the sphere of waste management along with another two partners. Vladimir Pavlik is one of them. At a certain time, we were among the biggest in the Czech Republic. Then we sold it to a multinational French company,” Mynar said.
Politicians were struggling with Mynar to have him file his financial disclosure for long. At first, he claimed that he did not have to present his property statement at all, MfD writes.
When he started being checked by the authorities over the affair, he wrote it down, but never released it.
Due to the vague legislation, it was unclear to whom he should do this. However, then an amendment to the relevant law was passed under which all civil servants have to file the financial disclosure.
The publication of Mynar’s property is vital for two reasons, MfD writes.
First, during his tenure, he was never given the security clearance he needs for the post, it adds.
When checking applicants for the clearance, the National Security Office also examines the origin of their property.
Second, the information about Mynar’s property is crucial because he heads the association that is leading a campaign in support of Zeman’s re-election. Zeman has promised not to wage any campaign but in the past months, the Czech Republic was flooded by billboards and posters featuring the slogan “Zeman again.”
It is signed by Mynar’s association, MfD writes.
It is still unclear how much money this cost. It is also unclear from where the association has it, it adds.
Expert say that it circumvents the law under which candidates must uncover their finances on a transparent account, MfD writes.
