Half-opening Pandur's box (corruption facilitators)
2010-02-22
MF Dnes had a unique opportunity to acquire proof of cabinet-
level corruption in the contract for Pandur armored vehicles, but
it instead did a half-baked job of "investigative" reporting that
achieves little except sell some newspapers. MFD confused
details of the two Pandur deals and pulled back before its
sources provided any truly damning information. ÈSSD Chair Jiøí
Paroubek was probably right when he told Czech Radio that TOP
09 was behind the scandal. The Pandur deal was one of the few
major defense contracts that Miroslav Kalousek and Richard
Háva weren't involved in, and the revelations in MFD fit with
Karel Schwarzenberg's bold claim in Týden that "part of the
money in big deals always goes to the large political parties."
MFD seems to be following an unpublished style guide:
Corruption scandals involving ODS and ÈSSD are allowed, as
long as nothing comes of them.
[Czech Republic Omnipol Pandora's box]
|