The Supreme Court confirmed the verdict in the case of the manipulated contract for the repair of Kuks

Brno - The Supreme Court confirmed the verdict in the case of the manipulated contract for the reconstruction of the Baroque complex at Kuks in the Trutnov region. Petr Semeniuk was sentenced to six years in prison, while Dalibor Dubový and Zdeněk Fučík received two years less. All three filed for an appeal, which the Supreme Court rejected. The full justification is not yet publicly available. The result was disclosed by Adam Wenig, spokesperson of the Municipal Court in Prague, which first dealt with the case.

The contract for the revitalization of Kuks cost more than 322 million crowns, most of which was covered by the European Union. The tender was won in 2013 by the Consortium Hochtief.CZ - Gema Art Group.

According to the verdict, Semeniuk took advantage of his acquaintance with the then-employee of the National Heritage Institute, Dubový, who was also the deputy chairman of the evaluation committee for the tender. From 2011 to 2012, Dubový sent him internal information via email regarding the preparation of the tender specifications. Semeniuk promptly forwarded them to the statutory director of Gema, Fučík, and to a member of the company's supervisory board, Kateřina Richterová, who later received a suspended sentence.

According to the verdict, Gema received advance access to the tender documentation and the proposed contract for work and influenced the documents through Semeniuk so that the assignment would suit them as much as possible. The information obtained was used to create the winning offer.

Fučík promised Semeniuk a reward for ensuring victory in the tender. However, Gema subsequently refused to pay the man, and Semeniuk therefore created a fake promissory note. He presented it as genuine to another company, which filed it in court, prompting the police to investigate the situation.

The courts could not prove that the second company from the winning consortium, Hochtief, was involved in the criminal activity in any way. Likewise, there is no evidence that Dubový was motivated by selfish reasons in his actions. The chief engineer of the reconstruction testified that he did not understand the issue of public procurement and therefore took advantage of the offered help from his acquaintance Semeniuk.

Czech Television reported last year that the National Heritage Institute had to return a grant of 314 million crowns from European funds and national sources.