Prague, Aug 16 (CTK) – The board of the Czech National Security Council (BRS) will meet after a government meeting on Thursday to discuss the case of the Ceska posta (CP) post state firm, government spokesman Martin Ayrer told CTK yesterday.
Interior Minister Milan Chovanec asked Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (both Social Democrats, CSSD) to convoke the meeting of the BRS board yesterday.
“The reason is the jeopardising of the economic interests of the Ceska posta state firm and a connected attempt to destabilise the situation in the Interior Ministry’s sector with the help of intelligence-security means,” Lucie Novakova, the ministry’s spokeswoman, told CTK.
Chovanec’s request is most probably connected with the information about alleged corruption in negotiations with the post that the Neovlivni.cz server released on Wednesday.
Chovanec is mentioned in the case. He has dismissed any accusation in this connection.
The bribe was allegedly demanded by Kamil Choc, a member of the CSSD in Central Bohemia.
He wanted the money to be given to him by businessman Lukas Cadek who has been suing the CP for 24 million crowns, the Anti-corruption Endowment (NFPK) told CTK previously.
The core of the dispute is allegedly a contract that Cadek’s firm was fulfilling for the CP in 2010. However, it eventually came to nothing, which resulted in Cadek’s bankruptcy. Choc afterwards offered Cadek to settle the dispute, allegedly under the condition that Cadek pays him three million crowns in cash.
Negotiations between Cadek and Choc were recorded. In the recording, Choc promises to gain a new contract for three million crowns, two of which would go to the CSSD and one directly to Chovanec within whose jurisdiction the CP falls.
Both Choavenc and the CSSD have dissociated themselves from the case. Chovanec previously filed a criminal complaint in this connection. The case is being investigated by the police.
The CP also filed a criminal complaint in the past and it later extended ti.
“The complaint was extended in June and a new one was filed because of the obviously falsified e-mails that are intentionally spread to the media with the aim of damaging Ceska posta and its representatives,” the CP said in a statement this week.
The Interior Ministry said in an additional statement yesterday the criminal complaints filed by Chovanec and CP managers “fundamentally limit” the possibility to react to individual pieces of information related to the case because they pledged in writing to maintain confidentiality in order not to disturb the investigation.
Nevertheless, together with the CP, the ministry has formulated 15 questions concerning the activities of Cadek and Choc. The replies to them should cast light on the reasons of “this campaign that Interior Minister Milan Chovanec previously described as an attempt at a media-political attack with an economic goal,” the ministry wrote.
($1=24.189 crowns)
ms/dr
