Prague - In 2010, the Czech capital city spent CZK 50mil (EUR 2mil) on a PR campaign advertising the city abroad. Currently, the contract is being looked into by Czech anti-corruption police, and recently also by the new "grand coalition" leadership of the Prague city hall.
In January 2011, the Czech Finance Ministry filed a criminal complaint, out of a suspicion that a part of the tender sum paid by Prague - roughly CZK 20mil - got "lost" somewhere in the process. The complaint incited the ongoing criminal investigation.
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Eventually, the Prague city hall, ruled by the coalition of the Social Democratic Party and Civic Democrats, announced that its control committee will investigate the case too. This internal audit will look not only into the 2010 campaign, but also into the advertising campaigns conducted in the years before 2010. The total sum being investigated is thus more than CZK 100mil from Prague's budget.
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"It is a serious case," said Petr Hulínský, a Social Democratic deputy and member of the Prague city council.
Prague mayor Bohuslav Svoboda (Civic Democratic Party) said that the case is a "legacy" inherited from the previous city hall leadership, adding that the current city hall leadership will do everything it can to support police in its investigation. Also, Svoboda assured that the city hall will respect the conclusion of the investigation, regardless of what it will be.
The contract to promote Prague abroad was awarded to Onyx Advertising, an advertising outfit, in May 2010. The company was the only participant in the tender.
Former Prague councilors responsible for awarding the tender, including the former mayor Pavel Bém, argue that at the time, they had no information that would cast doubt on the legality of the tender.
However, the tender was criticized by the opposition, which perceived it as being "tailor-made" for the one and only firm.
In addition, some experts on tourism criticized the campaign as ineffective, arguing that similar advertising campaigns that had taken place in the years before had failed to attract more tourists to Prague.
On the other hand, Onyx Advertising claims they are not aware of any wrongdoings that should be investigated by police. According to them, everything about the tender was legal.
The firm completed the project mainly by outsourcing - Onyx informed that CZK 31.5mil out of the total 50mil was paid to subcontractors.
