Prague’s mayor Bohuslav Svoboda lost control of his own party (ODS) in a key vote Tuesday night over the fate of the sacked director of Prague’s Public Transport Company (DPP). Svoboda tried to support the former director, Vladimir Lich, but was unable to convince his fellow party members, or ODS’s coalition partner TOP 09, from insisting that a tender be held for a new director.
Lich was dismissed last week after an ODS member of board at DPP board accused him of failing to communicate properly with the board. The suspicion is that the real reason for Lich’s sacking is related to his whistle-blowing activities, as he charged that DPP had wasted billions of crowns of public money through the signing of illegal, unprofitable contracts with a variety of suppliers. Given the size of DPP’s budget, combined with outrage over continually rising ticket prices for trams, buses and metro rides, the case is of critical importance to the city.
