Martin Shabu

Prime Minister Petr Nečas (ODS) told a news conference on Wednesday he had ousted Justice Minister Jiří Pospíšil he had lost confidence in his fellow party member’s ability to manage his ministry and its finances, over a request for an extra Kč 1 billion for the Prison Service at a time of belt-tightening. But sources say it was Pospíšil’s shake-up of the judiciary system and failure to quickly appoint a top prosecutor to Nečas’ liking that led to his sacking.

Not even three months into his post as head of the Northwest Regional Cohesion Council, Leo Steiner reached a clear conclusion: the distribution of EU funds in the Ústí nad Labem and Karlovy Vary regions was riddled with corruption. The reaction was not long in coming. The Council is preparing to submit a criminal complaint against Steiner for defamation, but others in the region are rallying to his defense.

Former head of the Czech anti-corruption police (ÚOKFK), Petr Vincenz, was in at the start of the long investigation that this week culminated  by reeling in top Social Democrat (ČSSD) politician David Rath and seven other suspects in what appears to be a high-profile graft case. Now out of the force, he talks about the preconditions that helped pave the way for such an outcome and his fears and foreboding for how the special police squad that piloted the probe might end up.

The allocation of EU grants in Northern Bohemia was not carried out in line with requirements, according to an audit by the consultancy Deloitte ordered by the Czech FinMin and EU executive. Problems were found in 34 of the 35 projects examined — and calculations of the evaluation criteria were riddled with systemic mathematical errors. What’s more, sources say the winning firms are secretly owned by regional ‘godfather’ Patrick Oulický.