The largest Czech construction company has been banned from public tenders for three years for its role in the David Rath corruption scandal. Police nabbed the former regional governor with CZK 7m stuffed into boxes in the back of his car in 2012. Last week Rath was sentenced to 8 years behind bars and was fined CZK 18m. But today’s Hospodářské noviny covers the situation around Metrostav, whose absence from public tenders could have a serious impact on some of the most important construction projects planned for the next few years. The newspaper points out that the company plays a key role in numerous motorway and railway projects, as well as the Prague metro where work on an entirely new line has just gotten underway. “The public sector would lose a significant competitor for the construction of motorways or the new metro line where there would be not only a lack of competition but may even construction capacity, which would make badly needed projects even later,” said the president of the Union of Construction Entrepreneurs Jiří Nouza. Metrostav has appealed the verdict. HN speculates that it could take up to a year for the verdict to take effect, and that the tender for the first portion of the D line metro could be completed before that.
