PRAGUE: The Czech Republic’s long-running corruption scandal among high officials boiled up again yesterday when Czech police brought charges against a close associate of a former prime minister over a deal to buy armoured personnel carriers.
Graft among the political class has dominated public debate in the central European country and hurt the popularity of the main political parties.
The centre-right cabinet of Prime Minister Petr Necas, in power since 2010, has beefed-up legislation on public procurement and appointed new prosecutors who have taken a more aggressive stance, bringing charges against current and former players in both government and opposition camps. High State Attorney Lucie Bradacova said police have charged Marek Dalik, an adviser to Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek during his term in 2006-2009, with fraud in relation to the government’s purchase of 107 Pandur armed personnel carriers from Austria in 2009 for 14.4bn crowns ($756.34m).
“The corruption and financial crime unit has detained...one person in connection with the Pandur case,” Bradacova told Czech Television yesterday, identifying the person as Dalik.
REUTERS
