Prague/Bishkek, July 17 (CTK) – The Czech Presidential Office is not surprised at the information that Kyrgyz bodies are checking the alleged incompetence of the Czech Liglass Trading firm to build an energy cascade in view of the hysteria unleashed by Czech media, spokesman Jiri Ovcacek has told CTK.
The information was released by Temir Djumakadyrov, secretary of the Kyrgyz Security Council after its meeting today.
According to kg.24 server he is convinced, however, that people who prepared the contract with the Czech firm examined all circumstances.
Djumakadyrov did not say which state bodies are checking the Czech firm.
Liglass Trading, seated near Zelezny Brod, north Bohemia, signed a contract for the construction and operation of two hydroelectric plants and the construction of ten smaller hydroelectric units in Kyrgyzstan last week.
The costs of the Akbulun and Naryn 1 plants were estimated at 400 to 700 million dollars.
The Czech firm is also to spend about 37 million dollars on the purchase of the stake of the RusGidro Russian firm in the ZAO Verchne-Narynskiye GES company that is in charge of the project.
According to Czech press information, Liglass is not known in the business field in the Czech Republic and not even the foreign affairs and industry ministries have any knowledge of it.
It is allegedly in charge of a project worth hundreds of millions of dollars, while its turnover has been in the order of hundreds of thousands of crowns by now.
The Czech Neovlivni.cz server wrote on Sunday that Czech President Milos Zeman’s chancellor Vratislav Mynar lobbied for Liglass Trading with the office of his Kyrgyz counterpart Sapar Isakov.
Ovcacek messaged to CTK that the campaign of certain media makes the impression as if it were part of “firms’ competition struggle for such a huge order.”
Mynar refused to comment on the issue in his reaction to CTK today.
Server kg.24 wrote that the issue has developed into a scandal in Kyrgyzstan. It wrote that it surfaced today that the Kyrgyz embassy in Austria and the Czech Republic did not recommend the signing of the contract with the Czech firm.
The embassy was addressed by the Kyrgyz National Energy Holding asking it to consider possible cooperation with Liglass.
In March, the embassy, referring to information from public sources, said the firm is not trustworthy and that courts deal with its possible bankruptcy. It did not recommend cooperation with Liglass.
The Russian TASS news agency wrote that the Russian side signed a contract on building the energy cascade with Russia in 2012. Four structures were to be built. The project costs and yields were to be divided based on parity.
One and a half years ago, Krygyzstan withdrew from the contract, saying the Russian partners do not have enough means to build the project.
According to some Russian media, RusGidro’s financial straits were caused by the West’s anti-Russian sanctions among others.
When the contract was cancelled, the Russian firm said it insists on the return of 37 million dollars which it invested in the project by then. Liglass pledged to repay the sum.
($1=22.842 crowns)
