Kateřina Menzelová

Speculators await massive Prague city property sell-off

Kateřina Menzelová — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 12:13:25 +0000

Prague councilors have approved the sale of nearly 3,855 city-owned dwellings — just a few hundred shy of the entire number of apartments sold last year in the Czech capital — for which the city hopes to fetch at least Kč 4 billion. There is talk, however, that speculators will manage to circumvent controls seeking to grant favorable terms only to current tenants.

CASA corruption case legal cause célèbre, but unlike Pandur tender

Kateřina Menzelová — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 14:10:38 +0000

Parliament’s immunity and mandate committee took no decision at their session Wednesday on the question of allowing MP Vlasta Parkanová (TOP 09), the former defense minister, to be prosecuted on abuse of office and other charges for her role in the 2009 purchase of CASA transport aircraft, said to have been deliberately overpriced by Kč 658 million.

PPF Banka waits in vain for cash to convert costliest Prague plot

Kateřina Menzelová — Tue, 29 May 2012 08:58:50 +0000

A luxury five-star Sofitel hotel was to arise on one of the most prestigious addresses in the Czech capital. But it was not to be. The lot on the corner of Mikulandská street and Národní třída, the avenue that runs from the Vltava River to the edge of Wenceslas Square, is still an unassuming parking lot, belying the fact that it is the most expensive plot in Prague.

Lard of the rings: why Czech motorways are overpriced

Kateřina Menzelová — Thu, 17 May 2012 06:47:58 +0000

Neither the Czech Ministry of Transport nor the Road and Motorway Directorate (ŘSD) will take much pleasure from the recently published findings of the Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ) regarding the construction of the Prague ring road.

Lost decade: How the Czech state wastes transport infrastructure resources

Kateřina Menzelová — Tue, 15 May 2012 06:28:33 +0000

Over the past 10 years, the Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ) carried out 11 audits focusing on the construction or upgrading of terrestrial communications, i.e. motorways and first class roads, rail corridors and the Elbe waterway, where, all in all, dozens of billions of crowns flow in annually. The auditors focused on prices and everything that influenced them. The result?

China shops in CEE but gives Czech Republic a wide berth

Kateřina Menzelová — Fri, 11 May 2012 08:21:25 +0000

What does a Chinese person say upon entering a shop? I’ll take everything! Enthusiastic customers from China are welcome around the world because their pockets are full of cash. The same goes for Chinese investors. The countries of Eastern and Western Europe are seeking to attract their favor — but thus far the Czech Republic is lagging well behind.

Czech state accounts neither ‘uniform’ nor totally reliable, NKÚ warns

Kateřina Menzelová — Wed, 09 May 2012 06:06:14 +0000

As of this year, the financial statements of state bodies and institutions are to be used by the Ministry of Finance, the Czech Statistical Office (ČSÚ) or the Czech National Bank (ČNB), for instance, as a basis for estimating the debt or deficit of public finances.

Prague 7’s massive tender for new City Hall merely ‘testing the waters’

Kateřina Menzelová — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:13:33 +0000

Now 16 months after Prague 7 called a tender to secure new headquarters for the district’s town hall comes a twist in the case: what had previously been presented as a classic public tender has been recast as mere “market research.”

What’s missing from the new public tenders law

Kateřina Menzelová — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 07:24:20 +0000

Perhaps no new Czech law has been anticipated with such great hopes — both justified and idealistic — as the amended law on public tenders. The legislation aimed at cutting out corrupt practices from public contracts came into force on April 1.

Dash to beat new Czech public tender rules

Kateřina Menzelová — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 12:02:33 +0000

Despite the fact that stricter regulations governing Czech public tenders aimed at stamping out corrupt practices came into force on April 1, the old rules will continue to influence “the game” for some time yet. What’s more, it appears the new regulations are not completely resistant to manipulation.