Prague, Dec 22 (CTK) – Petr Dohnal, who has recently been reinstated as Czech Prison Service director by a court verdict, wants to stabilise the situation at the service´s directorate and he may make further personnel changes, he said after meeting Justice Minister Robert Pelikan (ANO) yesterday.
Dohnal said the information that he dismissed three deputy directors on Monday was untrue.
Pelikan and Dohnal agreed that the prisons were functioning well.
“We share the view that the Prison Service as such operates well because its stability is based on individual prisons and their directors. However, the situation at the general directorate is rather problematic. The repeated replacements of directors naturally are not good for it,” Pelikan said.
He said he called on Dohnal to proceed prudently with possible personnel changes.
Dohnal said he sacked neither deputy director for security Milan Brendl nor deputy director for education Pavel Horak. He confirmed that he dismissed deputy director for logistics and IT Miroslav Honzik.
He said investments section head Zaneta Vika and personnel director Eva Chalupna were sacked as well.
Dohnal nevertheless said further personnel changes may be made.
On Wednesday, Pelikan is to meet outgoing Prison Service director Pavel Ondrasek to discuss the situation.
Ondrasek, who headed the Prison Service from Dohnal´s dismissal, said previously the service now had two heads. Pelikan rejected this view. An administrative proceeding that will be held within a few weeks will decide that Ondrasek´s appointment as director was not possible because the post was not vacant, Pelikan said.
Dohnal said he told Ondrasek to consider what he could do in the Prison Service next. In 2009-2014, he headed the prison in Rapotice, south Moravia.
Ondrasek has worked for the Prison Service since 1992.
Dohnal was first appointed prison service director in December 2012. Former justice minister Helena Valkova (for ANO) dismissed him for loss of trust and over alleged problems in financial management in April 2014, but he filed a remonstrance against the decision. He was reinstated in the top post based on a court decision that abolished Valkova´s dismissal last week.
