Brno-střed district council has requested further information from the Chair of the Control Committee for the purposes of internal audit. Photo credit: KK/BrnoDaily
Brno, Oct 17 (BD) – Two weeks ago, news broke of alleged corruption in the distribution of apartments in the Brno-Stred district, and Otakar Bradáč, an official of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), was subsequently remanded in custody and removed from his position as chairman of the Housing, Property, and Distribution Committee. This morning, the district council requested further information from Monika Lukášová Spilková, the chair of the council’s Control Committee, to assist with an internal audit into the affair.
In a report broadcast by Czech Television on 13 October, Monika Lukášová Spilková, the committee chair for the 2018-2022 electoral period, mentioned 30 to 40 flats in the district that she suspected of being manipulated by council officials over the past two years, and where they should have pointed out irregularities. The council has now requested a list of these properties for the purpose of conducting an internal audit, with the understanding that if it is found that the flats were allocated on the basis of false information, the council will demand their return and take further necessary legal action.
According to official municipal documents, the Control Committee was established with a majority from the opposition, including Spilková as the chair. The document further stated that in the past two years, the committee has dealt with only three complaints concerning the allocation of flats, all of which were satisfactorily resolved.
“If now the Chairperson is coming to the media with a statement about another 30 to 40 flats where she and other opposition representatives suspect manipulation, the question arises as to why the Audit Committee did not check the allocation of these flats or initiate an inspection by another municipal authority, such as the mayor or the city council, so that redress could be sought and possible damage prevented,” said Vojtěch Mencl (ODS), the mayor of the city district. “In any case, however, the procedures of the Control Committee cannot be assessed otherwise than as a failure of the control function in the area of flat allocation.”
Following a council resolution on 10 October, the Department of Internal Audit and Control was instructed by the mayor to launch an operational audit to investigate the allocation of flats according to district rules and the criteria and method of selecting applicants. The department has also initiated a system audit to identify and reduce risks in the council’s systems, and an audit based on information obtained by the council from the Czech police.
“If the former chairwoman of the Control Committee, Monika Lukášová Spilková, provides us with this list, we will immediately audit these flats. If it turns out that the flats were allocated on the basis of false information provided by the applicants, we will ask them to return the flats and take further necessary legal steps,” added Mencl.
