Karlovy Vary - Who was manipulating the bidding in a tender for the construction of a hall in Karlovy Vary, and why? Anti-corruption Unit has been trying to unravel these questions for over a year.
Now, new information has been made available, pointing to possible links between the company that was running the selection procedure (also known as "the Czech bidding lottery"), and the company that won the tender.
Jiří Pilský, an agent with Stormen, the company hired by Karlovy Vary to organize the bidding, used to work for Tender Group Plus. That company is under suspicion of having manipulated selection procedures in the past, and the court case is currently on trial.
The prosecution claims Tender Group Plus representatives awarded a contract to Liberec-based company Syner for a CZK 315,000 ($18 500, £9 500) bribe. The same company won the contract in Karlovy Vary, worth a billion of CZK.
Carry on, regardless
The sports hall on the outskirts of Karlovy Vary has not been built yet, but already is quite famous. The shots from the bidding lottery for the construction contract tender have been seen around the world.
On YouTube alone, thousands of people watched the recording of the drawer poking around in a wheel of fortune for several tens of seconds.
Following a suspect pause he fished out a piece of paper with the name of Syner-Bau-stav-Metrostav Consortium. These companies were then awarded the contract to build the hall for 1 billion CZK.
Although the Office for the Protection of Competition said the bidding process was manipulated and fined the city half a million CZK, the winning company keeps building.
Should the Office confirm its ruling, Karlovy Vary City Council will demand the payment of the fine from Stormen, the company it hired to organise the tender.
Nothing odd
The selection process in Karlovy Vary was handled for Stormen by Mr Jiří Pilský who decided, even before the bidding started, to use a clever trick. He hired another company, Stone Block, to perform the lottery draw designed to shortlist 5 companies out of the original sixteen who submitted their bids.
Thanks to that move, Stormen apparently slipped out of responsibility for the results of the public competition.
Representatives from both companies refuse to explain their tactics. "I am not going to comment," Ms Jana Kusá from Stone Block said and hung up on us.
Mr Pilský is equally reluctant to talk. "I explained everything to the police," he claims. "I must not say anything, otherwise I would be charged with obstructing the judiciary."
One thing is clear: although Stone Block employees were pulling the cards from the wheel of fortune, the lottery itself was personally supervised by Mr Pilský who did not raise a single objection when a hired ballotter kept poking in it for many seconds.
"Nothing happened there," Mr Pilský told Aktuálně.cz. "Nobody thought anything was odd."
Mr Pilský is convinced the tender was handled correctly; nevertheless, he's not contesting the fine. "It's part of our contract: if we cause any damage, we are responsible for reimbursing it," he says. "We'll pay even though this might bankrupt our company."
A clear winner - Syner
There is another fact: half a year before the "Czech bidding lottery" in Karlovy Vary, Mr Pilský organised a public bidding competition for reconstructing school and crèches sports grounds and gymnasiums in the town of Mimoň.
Even before he started to work for Stormen, Mr Pilský was active in another company with the same remit, Tender Group Plus.
He represented the owner of the latter company, Radovan Sitař, for instance during the public competitions in Cheb, Kutná Hora and Liberec.
Following these tender processes, the police charged Mr Sitař with corruption among other things for allowing the Syner Company to get a contract worth CZK 200 million for redevelopment of the maternity hospital in Liberec.
Whether he was guilty of criminal conduct or not is now being decided in a court trial.
