Final Word from Monday, September 3, 2012
Deputy Prague Mayor Josef Nosek insists that the changes to
Prague transit on Sat. weren't designed to save money and were
simply needed to bring Prague into the modern age. The Kč
400m in annual savings, he says, are a "pleasant byproduct."
However, it's hard not to see a correlation between the reduction
in service and the estimated theft of up to Kč 1bn per year from
the coffers of the DP Praha transit company. If Prague could
recoup only a fraction of the amount stolen over the years, the
reductions could be much more sensitive to the needs of the
city's residents. Instead, Prague considers this money sunk costs
that will never be recovered. The matter is in the hands of the
police now, and they have hundreds of offshore companies to
sift through. Any time or money invested by Mayor Bohuslav
Svoboda now in helping the investigators do their job could save
other tram and bus routes in the future.[Czech Republic DPP ODS]
Glossary of difficult words
A streetcar named greed - a wordplay on "A Streetcar Named Desire";
byproduct - a secondary result, unintended but inevitably produced in doing or producing something;
to recoup - to regain (something lost);
sunk cost - a cost that has already been incurred and cannot be recovered;
to sift through - to go through, examine.