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December 7, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 9
“Besides the drought, it is one of the reasons why the bark beetle infestation erupted. That’s why it is important to pay attention not only to the mon- etary side, but also to provide a proper care. These large companies go to places far away from where they are based, harvest the trees, plant new ones, and leave again. The price you pay for a cheap service is a bad forest care,” the agrarian analyst Petr Havel told bne.
According to Podstatzky-Thonsern, who is also the first deputy of the Association of Municipal and Private Forest Owners, the large companies, who received the biggest share of state contracts for forestry work, such as the companies in the Agro- fert holding, actually profit from the bark beetle infestation. They are getting even more contracts now, as more infested trees have to be cut down.
“Maybe that’s why it is so hard to change the ten- dering system. The criteria are set by the state; if Agrofert has its people in all the important places, the rules will never change.”
The Agrofert-controlled Uniles actually views the possibility of the change in the tendering system as a major threat to its business.
“We have invested a lot of money, bought new equipment, employed a large number of people. We need a long-term partnership with the state. If the tendering system changes, our business structure will be threatened,” Uniles’ Jelinek told bne.
Babis’s conflict of interest
Although it is hard to prove that Babis can actually — directly or indirectly — influence the policy of state-owned Czech Forests, at the end of the day he still is the prime minister of the country and the leader of the strongest political party. Some may argue that this fact is immaterial, as he no longer officially has any ties to Agrofert. However, that remains in dispute. According to the Czech chapter of watchdog group Transparency Interna- tional, Babis still in de facto control of the com-
pany, since he is “the founder and 100% end-user of benefits” of the two trusts overseeing the firm.
Certainly Babis’ political opponents, such as the members of the Czech Pirate Party, are convinced that Babis is breaking the law.
“There are two separate laws: one is the so called ‘Lex Babis’, an amendment to the existing conflict of interest legislation from February 2017, which is still in force. Then there is the new EU direc- tive from August 2018. We say that Andrej Babis is breaking both of these laws. This means that Agrofert is receiving both EU subsidies and state contracts illegally,” Petr Fojtik from the analytical team of the Czech Pirate Party told bne.
The leader of the Czech Pirate Party Ivan Bar- tos accused Babis in a recent TV debate of being too greedy. “There is a risk that because of your greediness the EU will stop all subsidies for the Czech Republic,” Bartos cried on Czech state TV. Babis’ conflict of interest is currently being in- vestigated by the European Parliament’s budget committee.
Babis described the initiative of Transparency International as being “politically motivated.” Ac- cording to him, the organisation is a “corrupted NGO”, and its director David Ondracka is “a liar who takes money from politicians.”
As for the Czech Pirate Party, the third largest party in the parliament, Babis doesn’t have any- thing nice to say either.
“That is one lie after another. I’ve complied with all the rules; I have nothing to do with the com- pany. You are denouncers. You are harming the Czech Republic. You are willing to harm the state just because of me.”
This article was written and researched with the support of Elvis (www.tenders.exposed).