Will Minister Bendl dare send HZ Consult to audit Budvar brewery?

Ministry of Agriculture’s appointment of audit firm HZ Consult to control Czech state-owned brewery is steeped in controversy

Politics & Policy|Companies

István Léko | 13.02.2012

CZE

VIP

Agriculture Minister Petr Bendl (ODS) wants to send auditing firm HZ Consult to inspect Budějovický Budvar’s books, but the firm has ties with controversial individuals and companies, including the Key Investments brokerage and businessman Petr Sisák

The Agriculture Ministry’s appointment of auditor HZ Consult to control Budějovický Budvar is steeped in controversy. The relatively small firm has been was linked to a financing scandal involving Public Affairs (VV) fundraiser MP Michal Babák and, indirectly, with the dubious brokerage Key Investments. It is controlled by a co-owner of auditor Bene Factum, which oversees Babák’s business activities.

ACCESS RESTRICTED

This article is completely accessible only to users of the VIP POSITION service. If you are signed up for the service, then please check to ensure that you are logged in. If you are logged in and the article has not completely displayed, you can get more detailed information on your user profile page.

Clicking on the button VIP gives you detailed information about the benefits of signing up for the VIP POSITION service. VIP

Comments

Czech Position values democratic discussion. Please respect the Terms of Service, which are intended to encourage correct and meaningful communications.

By entering your comment, you agree to these rules. We reserve the right to remove improper comments.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Important article

addick|13.02.2012 - 21:25

Good work Mr Leko!

There is a serious debate to be had about whether and how Budvar should be privatised, but this article shows us - again- that Petr Bendl has no interest whatsoever in a solution which benefits the Czech economy and taxpayers.

Just like Bendl's figures for Budvar's marketing spend, all the information and figures around HZ Consult stink to high heaven. The Ministry has told us that the audit will cost no more than 200,000CZK, yet also tell us that HZ will send in 15 people. What?? Based on any kind of typical hourly rate for auditing staff, those two figures just don't stack up. Of course here we learn that HZ Consult only have two full time employees, so perhaps the other 13 are brigadniky!