In terms of corruption, the period of seven years of governments with Dudeist prime ministers is characterised primarily by the godfathers and other godfathers described above. They brought their puppets and the puppets in turn provided them with profit in the form of completed tasks. Of course, at that time there were also puppets who either mediated contact between businessmen and politicians or acted as a kind of court agent for negotiations with individual businessmen. Each of the three figures described below had a somewhat different position and cannot be characterised in any other way than as figures completing the established system of corruption.
Martin Roman
This former CEO of the semi-state ČEZ, head of its board of directors, later head of the supervisory board, who, of course, did not ignore his positions in Czech Railways and other companies, is a central figure of the time, around whom the biggest contracts and other deals revolved. He was in fact the most important manager of the largest energy company (from 2004 to 2011), his fortune is counted in billions, and he also appeared at several godfather meetings. There were theories that the semi-state company ČEZ is not controlled by the state, but on the contrary, the one who controls the state is Martin Roman through ČEZ.
The fact is that Roman has raised the national electricity producer from a poorly performing company to one of the richest energy companies in Europe. During his time at the helm, the share price has climbed to several times its original value. The state-owned company has paid hundreds of billions in dividends to the privatisation fund and in taxes to the state budget. The problem, therefore, is not the incompetence of this manager, but the fact that he had built such a strong power centre around him that, even though his problems were known, he was already so economically powerful that no one dared to dismiss or suspend him for a long time. This was of course also due to the fact that both major parties, media houses and businessmen affiliated with political parties were beholden to him.
Another problem is some of Romanov’s strategic decisions in the sense that the Czech national electricity producer should be a leader in acquisitions abroad in rather unpredictable markets. In addition to Hungary, CEZ has been buying in Bulgaria, Romania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania. These investments have not only failed to pay off for the company, but are the source of many allegations of corruption and other economic crimes. According to some theories, these acquisitions have something to do with chains of companies with unknown owners that have been taken over by Czech politicians and other influential people. They were then supposed to prepare and then pass legislation that suited ČEZ and other related businessmen. This theory was supported by some statements by Andrej Babiš, who apparently knew a lot about the background of Roman’s activities that has not yet been revealed.
Another interesting fact is that the acquisitions in question were never investigated in important places in the times of ODS and ČSSD. As Jaroslav Spurný notes in his article https://www.respekt.cz/politika/policejni-vysetrovani-se-kterym-martin-roman-nepocital, the Czech police must have been nudged by their Albanian colleagues to be alerted to some alarming facts. The explanation for this inaction must then be sought in the cluster of economic and corruption links we describe. If the CEO of CEZ is meeting with Jiří Pospíšil as Minister of Justice in Italy, if the prosecutor Grygárek is buying an apartment that reporters say he cannot afford from the evil godfather Roman Janoušek in his mouse hole, etc., it is not surprising that prosecutors at the time were not interested in many things, or did not pursue criminal charges on some matters. Maybe in the future we will find out from some investigations from Switzerland, Albania or even the Czech Republic whether Martin Roman was and is a mere loyal servant of the state to the Czech taxpayers and electricity supply customers, or the biggest godfather and oligarchic crook.
Marek Dalík
There are several legendary couples in Czech literature who have never given a shot without each other. Let’s remember the evening cartoon characters Bob and Bobek, Ája and her faithful maxipso Fík or the brothers Jája and Pája. Since the arrival of Prime Minister Topolánek to the Straka Academy, another one – Topolánek and Dalík – has been added to the awareness of the Czech public. Whenever there was a smell of some non-standard procedure, or it was necessary to reverse a stuck situation by unfair methods, or it was necessary to discuss with a businessman under what unofficial conditions he could be entrusted with a public contract, somehow Marek Dalík was always there. When it suited Topolánek, he would say that Dalík was acting on his own, and at other times he would admit that Dalík was acting in accordance with his will.
If we recall the time of the previous coalition government , Dalík was there when it was necessary to convince the renegade MP Zdeněk Kořistka to betray the party he was elected for in a vote of confidence. When Topolánek was already sitting at the head of the government table, Dalík again discussed the prospects of the loyalty of some coalition MPs. When the government or individual ministers had to decide on something with interesting economic potential, a copy of the documentation went to Topolánek’s friend Dalík. Dalík then often met with the businessman and discreetly inquired about the conditions where the interests of the state, ODS, Dalík’s wallet and the businessman could meet. This was also the case with the intended purchase of a Pandur military vehicle from Steyr. The cooperation with this company had already begun a year earlier, during the reigns of Stanislav Gross and Jiří Paroubek. For the moment, we leave aside the fact that there are many indications that this initial relationship was not free of corruption. Nevertheless, Topolánek’s government withdrew from the cooperation in order to subsequently launch a new tender. That is when Dalík met with representatives of Steyr, one of the potential contractors, in the restaurant at the Painters. As Stephan Szücs, the former manager of the armourer, testified, during the meeting Dalík asked the lobbyist for 18 million euros for the cooperation. Dalík was later sentenced to five years in prison for this activity, only to serve part of it. He was subsequently released on parole and is now chopping Latin and praying that he doesn’t burst into some other shenanigans, lest he return to the Znojmo prison again. Unfortunately, the courts were unable to clarify the cardinal question when unraveling the corruption tangle, i.e. whether Dalík was acting on his own or whether he was raising money for someone else, i.e. ODS, the entire coalition or Topolánek.
Richard Háva
Richard Háva is a longtime friend of Miroslav Kalousek, a former deputy defence minister, multiple finance minister and chair of the KDU-ČSL and TOP 09. This businessman was and is the owner of several arms, energy and other companies. The links between the two men are as old as Kalousek’s political career. There is also a long chain of controversial deals that either Kalousek or his associates have made with Richard Háva’s groups. Among the older unusual deals, let us mention the exchange of aircraft for helicopters from the beginning of Kalousek’s career. The strange purchase of Casa aircraft belongs to the defined period of the ODS government and Kalousek’s participation in it. For this, Kalousek’s former party colleague Vlasta Parkanová was prosecuted for many years. The purchase of four transport aircraft was decided by the second Topolánek government in April 2009.
The army has purchased Casa aircraft from a Spanish manufacturer. The state paid CZK 3.5 billion for the purchase. The money went to the middleman of the deal – Hava’s company Omnipol, and it later turned out that the project completely lacked a contractual item or a basic analysis of how much Omnipol would pay the Spanish side for the planes. These amounts were blacked out in the attached contract between the EADS consortium and Omnipol.
According to critics and independent analysts, the middleman paid the aircraft manufacturer 98 million euros, or roughly CZK 2.5 billion. The intermediary firm thus made a profit of CZK 1 billion on the deal. The commission is common in similar purchases, but it is estimated to have exceeded the usual amount by about 700 million. In the case of Casa aircraft, it represented almost a third of the total purchase amount paid by the state.
It is not clear why the state needed an intermediary for the purchase of the aircraft in the first place. In such tenders, it is usual that military equipment is purchased directly or on the basis of interstate agreements.
In addition to the executives, the police also focused on investigating Defence Minister Vlasta Parkanová of TOP 09, whose entourage had pushed for the purchase of Spanish aircraft against the will of the army itself, which preferred a different type of aircraft from an Italian manufacturer. The fact that negotiations on the purchase from the Italians were at an advanced stage is also evidenced by a letter written by the Italian ambassador to the Czech Republic after the Topolánek government changed its mind.
Parková was defended by politicians of the then government and managers. However, according to police versions, the managers were the ones who strongly promoted the form of purchase and partner. The then Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek deflected the suspicions in the media and in court as a witness by saying that according to the Law on State Property, the situation was not covered by the obligation to prepare an appraisal of the usual price.
