Prague, Nov 10 (CTK) – Companies from the Agrofert Holding of Andrej Babis, the Czech finance minister since early 2014, won public contracts worth 35 billion crowns in 2007-2016, the www.Hlidacipes.orgwatchdog server has written, referring to its analysis of the companies’ financial management.
The highest sums went to Agrofert from Cepro, a state company controlled by Babis’s Finance Ministry, the server wrote.
Babis has repeatedly dismissed the accusations of facing a conflict of interest as a minister and billionaire entrepreneur.
Agrofert Holding insists that it has sought public contracts transparently and in accordance with law, and it does not vitally depend on them.
“Any time Agrofert Holding succeeded in a public tender, it was only because it offered a price that is most advantageous for the state. Since trade with the state makes up 1.5 percent of Agrofert’s overall turnover, the holding does not depend on public contracts,” its spokesman told CTK.
Hlidaci pes’s analysis showed that Agrofert’s 29 companies won a total of 591 state contracts in the period surveyed.
Eight of the companies surveyed won their first public contracts only after Babis became a minister.
The largest number of public contracts were awarded to the Preol biofuel producer. It won contracts worth 25.3 billion crowns altogether.
The second and third most successful were the Uniles forestry company and the Primagra biofuel producer, with contracts worth 3.7 billion and 2.5 billion, respectively, the server writes.
On the part of the state, their key contractual partner was Cepro, a huge fuel distributor and biggest biofuel buyer.
“From January to September 2016, 80 percent of Cepro’s biofuel purchases were bought from Babis’s companies Preol and Primagra. The rest was supplied by the Hungarian oil and gas concern MOL,” the analysis says.
In the same period, supplies from Babis’s Ethanol Energy company made up 35 percent of Cepro’s bioethanol purchases.
Babis’s forestry firms Uniles and Wotan Forest provided supplies for the state companies Lesy CR and Vojenske lesy, and also for the Czech Switzerland National Park management.
“Dozens of contracts were won by Agrotec, which now faces a lawsuit for suspected manipulation of public orders,” Hlidaci pes wrote.
Agrotec won 65 state contracts worth more than half a billion crowns in the period surveyed. Twelve, concerning car purchases and maintenance, were placed with the firm by the Czech Post postal services company.
This year, the most successful Agrofert firms seem to be the Mlekarna Hlinsko and Olma dairies that have won the state contract for a powder milk supply worth 37.5 million and 31.5 million crowns, respectively.
Hlidaci pes’s analysis has been completed with support from the Anti-Corruption Endowment.
($1=24.521 crowns)
