Stripped of her immunity, Vlasta Parkanová (TOP 09) can now be prosecuted over a contract to buy CASA transport planes for the Czech Army — which were allegedly unneeded and deliberately overpriced by at least Kč 658 million. Former police investigator Zdeněk Ondráček explains how her prosecution could ultimately lead to higher levels of responsibility for the nation’s politicians.

The Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ) has said that to comply with the government’s request to check the books of the Administration of State Material Reserves (SSHR) would be futile, even if it had the full capacity to do so. PM Petr Nečas’ cabinet wants state auditors to investigate the controversial extra-budgetary “special accounts” — but the NKÚ has already made clear the SSHR buys high and sells low with impunity, and MPs have de facto legitimized the practice. 

With the elections to the Czech upper house of Parliament only some five months away, political parties are trying to lure voters in with new faces. To its list of new heavyweights Senate hopefuls like the prominent sociologist Ivan Gabal and former Constitutional Court judge Eliška Wagnerová, the Green Party (SZ) has added a figure with star power: writer, journalist and former dissident Jáchym Topol.

The Czech police have detained several officials working in the Northwest Regional Operational Programme (ROP) office that distributes EU subsidies; including a section and department head, who will likely be charged with abuse of office, local media reported Tuesday.