It’s a bit of a paradox. The mayors fought in vain for many years to repair some damaged regional roads in the Přerovsk region, i.e. in the region where the main actors of the case of corrupt transport contracts “Autostrada” come from.
Due to the undelivered D1 highway, trucks are cutting their way through the villages, and the excessive traffic load put the mayors of Tovačov, Troubek, Vlkoš or Bochore on alert years ago. Even though these municipalities urgently requested the region to repair the damaged roads, priority was given to others. Ones that an organized group could profit from.
But today these roads are messed up and the mayors have only eyes for crying.
The program Reportéři ČT recently drew attention to specific contracts in the Olomouc region, which were used by a group of influential politicians, officials and businessmen. Thirteen people were involved in influencing road contracts, whom the police accuse of accepting a bribe, fraud or abuse of the authority of an official.
In the case of transport constructions for the Olomouc Region, materials and procedures were used
Repairs against the project
Among the accused is the former deputy governor for transport and former Přerov deputy governor Michal Zácha (formerly ODS) or the influential Přerov businessman Robert Knobloch, who in the past led the ODS regional association.
According to the detectives, the most broken roads in the region were not being repaired, but sections whose construction could be profitable. Officials were invited to expensive lunches, tours, but also received hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes.
According to ČT Reporters, an organized criminal group agreed in a wine cellar in Hlohovec in South Moravia on how to control road contracts and divide the profit.
In the initiated criminal prosecution, the police officers described specific cases of orders that the criminal group manipulated, or attempted to do so. According to the police, the accused controlled the entire procurement process and obtained information about the tenders submitted.
Two plums. According to the police, Zacha and Knobloch used codes for bribes
According to the investigators, the related companies should have deliberately offered the lowest prices so that other companies could not compete with them. However, according to the winning companies, they repaired the road contrary to the project.
The goal was to save as much as possible in order to “pay” everyone who participated in the successful “business”. According to detectives, the members of the group shared the money among themselves.
The mayors of the municipalities, who were happy about the newly repaired section of the road, unfortunately had no idea that they were rejoicing prematurely after the ribbon cutting ceremony. The quality was faltering.
One of the biggest investments in regional roads recently was, for example, the reconstruction of the section from Litovla to Unčovice.
The repair took place in several stages in 2022 and 2023. Motorists have been driving on the new road since August last year.
“We were glad at the time that they repaired it. We have not yet received any comments from drivers and citizens regarding the quality of the repaired road. On one section, between Unčovice and Rozvadovice, the road surface cracked. We have filed a complaint with the highways department about this to get it fixed. In this place, however, no reconstruction, including the subsoil, was done, only surface repair,” explained the mayor of Litovel, Viktor Kohout.
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Loučany: a new road for an old one
According to Mayor Jaroslav Loutocký, irregularities should also have occurred during the reconstruction of the so-called main field road in Loučany in Olomouc. It was a contract financed by the municipality.
“Our road was reconstructed by the same company that repaired regional roads from the Autostrada case, everything is already being checked by the police. The damage to the municipality was approximately one million crowns,” Mayor Jaroslav Loutocký said, adding that part of the new road was laid on the original surface of the old dirt road, which, according to him, was contrary to the specifications.
According to the investigators, one of the main actors in the case was Tomáš Tomanec – a construction manager who allegedly figured out how to cheat the repair of this road and make illegal money from it.
Unbeknownst to the client, he allegedly decided that the construction work would be carried out “by completely different procedures, with a different technology and with a different quality than under the conditions stipulated in the contract for the work”.
According to ČT Reporters, Tomanec was putting the criminal group’s plans into practice – he arranged to steal orders so that the group would have money left over from them. He then had to supervise everything in the field.
Rival. You are dealing with gangsters
The road in the village of Slatinky was supposed to be another stolen construction. On it, the group was to be enriched by approximately two and a half million crowns from public money. The mayor of the village, Monika Prokopová, does not hide the fact that she was shocked by the actions of an organized criminal group.
“The repair of the third-class road in Slatinky also included sidewalks and outdoor lighting. We can’t do anything at this point because we don’t know the extent of the damage. I was shocked that you would come across such an organized group in the countryside. How can you know that you are dealing with gangsters?,” asks the mayor.
It was said to be an iconic building for the village, for which the locals had been waiting for thirty years.
“She had a lot of obstacles, first there was covid, then the prices did a somersault after the war broke out in Ukraine. When it was finally built, people were excited. But then you find out that everything was arranged and they charged us for something they didn’t do,” she noted.
In addition, high concentrations of cancer-causing tar were found in the original road, which the builders were supposed to dispose of professionally according to the project. But the act itself is expensive, and the organized group in Slatinky wanted to save on it.
Builders used to leave hazardous material in a landfill right on the construction site. “What they raked out, they threw here again,” the mayor describes.
We considered Zácha an expert, says the rector of the University of Logistics in Přerov
We’re glad it didn’t work out
And how do the mayors of the municipalities in the Přerovsk region perceive the case of stolen roads in the region, who have not yet received repairs to the damaged roads?
“The regional road that runs through our village is still waiting for repair. It got busy because trucks drove over it and Škoda cars drove over it to the airport. It is kept in roadworthy condition and now it probably doesn’t make sense to repair it. Hopefully we will see the repair after the completion of D1,” said the mayor of Bochora, Tomáš Volek.
According to him, traffic between Přerov and Bochoří has been eased by the new interchange, built as part of the construction of the D1 highway.
“In the end, we are glad that it was not managed, the new road solved our problem. The original regional road between Přerov and Bochoří is closed and will become the property of our municipality in the future. It is planned that a cycle route will lead here,” concluded the mayor.
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Governor: We will take over the roads in layers
The first results of analyzes of several roads from the Autostrada case are already available to the management of the Olomouc Region. We asked Olomouc Governor Josef Suchánek (STAN) about how the analyzes turned out and what the next procedure will be.
Olomouc governor Josef SuchánekSource: Deník/Vladimír Pryček
How was road testing carried out?
We proceeded on the basis of a police investigation where nine roads were marked. We analyze all sections. These are contracts that were completed after 2021 and later. The region paid almost 600,000 crowns for the probes and analyses. It’s not a little, but considering the fact that it spends around a billion on road and bridge repairs every year, it’s still a tolerable amount. If, on the basis of the analyses, we file complaints with suppliers, these are funds well spent.
What are the interim results?
I got the first set of results on my desk last week. We will discuss the analyzes with colleagues from the Department of Transport at a regular meeting. We will evaluate everything and draw conclusions. Some tests came out in such a way that they can be interpreted in two ways. For example, on one road, the stress tests came out well, which means that the basic parameter is fine. At the same time, the layers that should have been there according to the project documentation are not laid there. Now we have to evaluate which parameter will be more important for us from the point of view of further progress.
How will problematic sections be resolved?
We will file a claim against suppliers where a deviation from the project documentation is detected. If we were to choose the most demanding procedure somewhere, which is to tear down the road and re-lay all the layers, then that is already a serious decision. We can’t do that just among ourselves. I would also like to include the mayor of the municipality concerned in this decision, because he should also have the opportunity to have the final say. The second way of solving complaints of specific sections could be to apply a discount from the price of the entire work and return the amount for unrealized construction items.
Will the region return subsidies for the construction of these roads?
At first, it really looked like the return of subsidies might be in danger. At this point, I don’t think this option should happen. I believe that the damages will not be higher than what the police indicated, i.e. around 50 million crowns. I assume that they will be a little lower and, above all, they will not be at the expense of the Olomouc Region. We have in our hands all the levers for applying complaints, it is up to the suppliers.
What measures did the governor’s office take?
Of course, the question of the human factor comes first. From this point of view, the personnel changes we have made should lead to a more stable situation. We also have a project in progress where we will work better with data analysis. We enter the data of all previously executed public contracts into the system. We will be able, based on analyzes of already completed contracts, to determine which future contracts we should subject to a more extensive financial review beyond what we normally do.
Has the procedure for submitting transport orders changed?
We have introduced, and we are putting it into contracts with road suppliers, that we will gradually take over the individual construction layers from the suppliers. We will analyze them gradually, which will slow down the construction speed a bit, but it will only be a few weeks. On the other hand, we will have a guarantee that something that should not be seen will not be covered up in a hurry. The work will be handed over continuously, which has not happened in the past. Probes were made only when the finished work was handed over. The new procedure, where the roads will be taken over in individual layers, and only after approval by the building inspectorate, should improve the quality of the roads.
Tags: Cheated roads Olomouc region Autostrada case disgusted mayors
