Prague - In July 2009, a set of photos was leaked to Czech media showing Czech politicians, businessmen and lobbyists vacationing in Tuscany, Italy. The photos created a major scandal in the Czech Republic and shed more light into suspected personal connections between Czech political and business elite, and conflicts of interest that emerge from them.
Read more: IN PICTURES: Vacationing Mirek Topolánek in the company of lobbyists
Read more: Topolánek mimics Berlusconi rather than answer question
Now, some 18 months later, it appears that the jet setting of Czech politicians and businessmen goes on.
Last week, Aktualne.cz journalists managed to take photos of a group of Czech managers arriving at Prague Ruzyne airport from a holiday in Dubai, where they played golf. The group included people who award and receive public contracts worth billions of taxpayers money.
In the group was director general of Czech Railways Petr Žaluda, director of Prague Public Transport Company Martin Dvořák, and co-owner of Škoda Transportation Tomáš Krsek.
The state-controlled companies Czech Railways and Prague Public Transport Company are key strategic partners of Škoda Transportation, which has been awarded public contracts worth billions from them.
As in the previous Tuscany affair, it is not known who paid the vacation.
The three businessmen were accompanied by Pavel Suchánek, a deputy for the ruling Civic Democratic Party (ODS) and head of the budget committee of the lower chamber of the Czech Parliament, CEO of Czech energy giant ČEZ Martin Roman, and an influential lobbyist Roman Janoušek, who is being investigated by police.
Read more: European energy giant ČEZ operates paramilitary unit
Read more: Cap and trade: ČEZ among "fattest cats" of Europe
The tickets to Dubai were worth approximately EUR 20,000. Suchánek said to Aktuálně.cz that a part of this sum was paid by ČEZ boss Martin Roman. The managers insist they have paid their holiday themselves.
Millions of euro in public contracts
Czech Mf Dnes daily has learned that approximately 60 percent of public contracts awarded by Czech Railways are granted to firms falling under the umbrella of the Škoda Transportation group.
For example, two months before the Dubai trip, a sister company of Škoda Transportation was awarded by Czech Railways a EUR 132 mil public contract for 15 trains.
In addition, Škoda Transportation is a key supplier of trams for Prague Public Transport Company. It has been contracted to supply 250 new trams by 2017 for EUR 680 mil. The Czech Antimonopoly Office was ordered by court to look into the contract and find out whether Škoda Transportation has been given preferential treatment.
Read more: OpenCard scandal: 8 firms with unknown owners involved
Read more: "If Osama were a shareholder, nobody would know"
"I can separate business from friendship"
Martin Dvořák, the general director of Prague Public Transport Company, said he sees no problem in vacationing with Krsek, whose Škoda Transportation receives public contracts worth millions of euro of taxpayers money from him. "We know each other from the 1990s, from sport activities, skiing, golf, we are the same generation and family friends," said Dvořák.
However, neither of the two directors of the state-controlled companies is willing to show a billing document that would prove that their vacation was paid by themselves and not by somebody else.
The suspicion that the Dubai golf vacation could have been paid by Škoda Transportation, their preferred supplier, thus prevails, and Dvořák's assertion that he can "separate business from friendship" makes very little difference.
