The blackmail minister

VV and ABL security agency are constantly in the headlines because of conflicts of interest, but the media have mostly forgotten about a very telling incident reported in MFD in June. When Transport Minister Vít Bárta was still officially with ABL, he taped a meeting in which Tesco manager Daniel N. allegedly asked for a bribe for a store-security contract. Bárta used the tape to squeeze out a competitor and to win the job for his own company, but he didn't go to the police. Bárta has now installed a colleague from the security industry, Michal Moroz, as the deputy interior minister in charge of such things as the battle against corruption and the rules for security agencies. Moroz told MFD that information is the most valuable commodity. Nearly every step Bárta takes heightens the suspicions that he wants to turn the interior ministry into a clearinghouse for information that can be used for extortion. [Czech Republic building retail]