Sponsors of parties in Central Moravia are receiving contracts

Olomouc - A number of construction companies that won key contracts for construction or repairs worth millions of crowns at larger town halls in the Olomouc Region last year are, according to today's Mladá fronta Dnes (MfD), also sponsors of the political parties that control these town halls. In most cases, this primarily concerns the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), and to a lesser extent, the Czech Social Democratic Party (ČSSD). Both the companies and the town halls deny any connection between donations and contracts. This information is reported by the central Moravian edition of the newspaper.
    Analysis of the list of major public contracts and a summary of sponsors shows, according to the paper, that this issue involves companies such as Insta Prostějov, Alfaprojekt Olomouc, the central Moravian division of the joint-stock company ŽSD, Modosu Olomouc, Centroprojekt Zlín, and Prostasu Prostějov.
    These companies received contracts worth tens of millions from the town halls or the region last year, while the companies were sponsors of ODS or ČSSD in the previous year. These two parties control the cities of Olomouc, Prostějov, and Přerov, while the right-wing coalition of ODS and the Christian Democrats also leads the Olomouc Region.
    For example, Insta Prostějov carried out street repairs in Hejčín in Olomouc and sewage works in Vrahovice near Prostějov, totaling nearly 50 million crowns, and at the same time donated 50,000 crowns to ODS. "This is not related at all. We won the contracts fairly and gave a donation to ODS because it supports the development of business," said the director of Insta, Josef Špalt, to the newspaper. The Mayor of Olomouc, Martin Novotný (ODS), also rejects any connection: "I see no connection. It's about the limited number of construction companies in the region. As for ODS, I don’t see any problem at all there. In the last electoral term, we didn’t have the contracts under our responsibility," stated the mayor to the newspaper.
    However, representatives of the organization Transparency International, which deals with municipal contracts, have a different opinion. "The connection between contracts and sponsors is not proof, but at least a sign of possible corruption. It indicates a link between political parties and companies. This is particularly a problem at the municipal level," said Michal Štička from the organization to the newspaper.