Praha - Last year, some of the highly ranked civil servants who have to submit a personal property statement by law admitted to investing millions of CZK but, surprisingly, they claim to have no debts.

Media cannot inform about their income, property and debts, though. The Conflict of Interest Act puts a ban on publishing information on property statements of civil servants.

Despite this, some media published the statements risking lawsuit.

I saved and saved...

One of the civil servants who got hold of enormous property last year was Czech National Bank Vice-Governor Luděk Niedermayer.

He bought an apartment in a mountain resort for several million Czech crowns, a car for several hundreds of thousands crowns and invested another hundreds of thousands into the reconstruction of his villa. He received some CZK 100,000 for renting a flat.

"I financed it from my savings. I have quite substantial savings due to my income," Niedemayer told Aktuálně.cz when asked about his debts. In fact, the ČNB manager could have saved up so much money. His net income exceeded CZK 2 million only in 2007.

Also member of the Czech Telecommunications Office, Petr Štěpánek, says that he was working hard to make money and managed to save a lot.

Štěpánek financed the construction of a villa worth several millions (CZK) and has no debts even though he had no additional income. "We financed the house from the money we earned. It is mentioned in the 2007 property statement as it was approved and registered in the property register in 2007. Its value reflects the total acquisition price and not the investments made in 2007," Štěpánek told Aktuálně.cz.

Štěpánek explains that due to the Conflict of Interest Act he could not run a business since last year's January but before that he had a private consultation firm with annual yields of millions CZK. 

"Besides this, I continuously receive royalties for my articles, books, records, concerts and songs. I also dealt with bonds in the past," he adds.

Access denied

The Security Information Service (SIS) Director, Jiří Lang, also invested into real estate last year but has no debts. "The real estate was financed from the money he legally made," SIS Spokesperson, Jan Šubrt, says.

However, people cannot learn from the media how much Lang's new flat or Niedermayer's  apartment cost or how high the debt of Government Office Director, Jan Novák, is.

The law allows access information from the personal property statements of MPs, Senators and the member of the Czech Media Council. Citizens can also take a look at civil servants' last year's statements but the media cannot publish them.

"The law now allows publishing more things but the protection of civil servants' personal data still needs to be observed" Lower House Mandate and Immunity Chairman, Ladislav Žák, says.

Nonetheless, the access to the register is somewhat complicated for citizens, as the statements are not readily available.

Those interested must go to the Lower House Library and the Senate Mandate Committee and apply for the passwords for the Internet database where the statements are archived. They can also apply for the passwords in writing.

This year, some twenty people only applied for the access to the register.