Prague, April 10 (CTK) – The Czech ANO movement will return the financial gift it received from the owner of a firm that eventually won a tender put up by the Defence Ministry controlled by ANO, Finance Minister and ANO head Andrej Babis said today, referring to a supply of bulletproof vests to the military.
“I have ordered that ANO immediately return the gift to Mr Stanislav Petr, and I have asked my [party] colleagues to check donors better,” Babis tweeted.
Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky, who is ANO deputy chairman, said he will explain the circumstances of the tender at the request of Chamber of Deputies chairman Jan Hamacek (government Social Democrats, CSSD).
Hamacek, who is deputy head of the CSSD, said Stropnicky must refute all suspicions emerging in connection with the 200,000-crown gift.
“I will gladly explain to you in the Chamber of Deputies what it is like if an independent commission chooses a [supplier] company based on the lowest offered price,” Stropnicky reacted on Twitter.
The bulletproof vests from the Czech Argun company cost 255 million crowns.
On Saturday, daily Pravo wrote that Argun’s owner Stanislav Petr sent 200,000 crowns as a gift to ANO’s account last October when the ministry was choosing from among four companies’ bids.
Stropnicky has dismissed any links between the gift and the tender’s result.
Under a contract signed in March, Argun will supply 5,500 bulletproof vests to the Czech military until 2020.
($1=24.999 crowns)
