Construction company Metrostav rejects all allegations made in the indictment in the corruption case associated with the repair of the church of St. Mary Magdalene in Liberec. Vlastimila Veselá, the company’s representative, repeated this at the court in Liberec today. Metrostav also does not agree that the indictment should be filed against its subsidiary Metrostav Infrastructure (MI), as required by the public prosecutor. According to the file, the order for the reconstruction of the church for 65 million crowns with a European subsidy was manipulated and overpriced. According to the indictment, the company’s employees offered bribes, including to the regional governor Martin Půt (Mayors for the Liberec Region).
The Regional Court in Liberec is dealing with the case for the second time. He acquitted all the defendants for the first time, including Metrostav, but the High Court overturned his decision and remanded the case for a new hearing. In the main branch of the case, the regional court is now resolving possible infringements against nine people and five companies. The hearing is at the beginning, the interrogation of the defendants is over today and the trial will continue in August, apparently by reading the testimony of witnesses. There are over 100 of them.
Metrostav won the contract for the repair of the church in 2012. Veselá reiterated today that this was a normal contract for the company, not a significant one, as stated in the indictment. According to the file, the contract was overpriced by 17 to 24 million crowns and the allocation of Metrostav was agreed in advance.
The project was prepared by the non-profit company Geothermal Energy for Citizens (GEPO), which received a subsidy of about 55 million crowns. In the end, however, nothing was paid out of European funds. The defendant Jiří Zeronik, who was the chairman of the GEPO board of directors and who concluded an agreement with the public prosecutor on guilt and punishment, spoke about the “clinking” contract in court. The court will decide on the possible approval of this agreement in the summer.
Veselá did not know today who was the guarantor of the offer for the order for the reconstruction of the church in Metrostav. She denied any wrongdoing on the part of the company. According to her, this excludes the set code of ethics, directives and standards that the company has adopted. “Metrostav rejects any illegal, immoral and unfair practices and does not tolerate such conduct,” she said in court. According to her, employees are even obliged to report any non-standard or illegal actions of anyone else. However, she was unable to say whether any of the company’s employees had taken advantage of this opportunity since its inception.
Two Metrostav employees were charged in the case – Jaroslav Stuchlík and Jan Petráň. Stuchlík, who died at the end of 2019, was the company’s director for the Liberec region at the time. According to Veselá, at that time it was a symbolic representative function without decision-making power. According to her, Petráň, who worked in marketing, did not have one either. None of them was the guarantor of the submitted offer for the reconstruction of the church. According to the indictment, however, both were to offer a bribe of 830,000 crowns to the governor to ensure that the risky project remained in the subsidy program and money was paid for it. The governor and both Metrostav employees denied the corrupt actions.
Metrostav also refuses to allow any criminal liability against its subsidiary MI. “No part of the plant related to the alleged criminal activity in this case was transferred to her,” said the company’s representative. Today’s MI was originally MVE Štětí with a registered capital of two million crowns, which was increased to 100 million in 2020. According to Veselá, the part of Division 4 dealing with road construction was transferred to MI, and according to it, the case is related to the activities of Division 8. Today, Veselá justified the separation of a part of the company with approximately 450 to 500 employees by increasing competitiveness in obtaining contracts.
Source: CTK
