The Czech Ministry of Education has been raided by the country’s anti-corruption police unit as part of an investigation on a large public tender for the delivery of a database to monitor public funds spent on research and development projects. The tender was still being prepared by the Ministry and was to be issued next month.
The investigators did not disclose what suspicions motivated the action. Analysts quoted by a national newspaper that reported the case mentioned that concerns about this tender might be related to a possible attempt to tailor the tender proposal in order to suit a certain provider, or to artificially raise the value of the contract.
A statement released by the Minister of Education, Josef Dobes, said that the police investigation refers to a contract from 2007 for the delivery of software services for research and development, which allegedly expired last September. Mr. Dobes claims that he opposed the extension of the old contract against the advice of ministry officials and decided to prepare a new tender for such services. He also declared that the tender is suspended until the investigation is concluded.
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