Czechia’s largest hospital embroiled in massive fraud scandal
Motol University Hospital, the largest medical facility in Czechia, has found itself at the centre of a serious anti-corruption operation by Czech police. Seventeen people have been accused so far, among them the hospital’s director, Miloslav Ludvík, who was dismissed from the position by Minister of Health Vlastimil Válek on the day that the operation began.
Motol University Hospital is a well-known Czech institution. Located in the west of Prague, and served by its own metro station, the hospital treats over a million patients every year, and is responsible for training many of the country’s doctors and nurses. Now the eyes of the country are on Motol, after members of its senior management were charged by the police on February 24th on suspicion of bribery, embezzlement, money laundering and misuse of EU funds.
The accusations against seventeen people primarily concern two subsidies for building projects, co-financed from Czech and European funds. One was a subsidy for the construction of an oncology centre, for which a total of more than 3.7 billion crowns is expected be allocated. The other went towards energy-efficiency improvements for the hospital’s Blue Pavilion, a building that houses the adult patient department. The case is being overseen by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Most prominent among those accused is Miloslav Ludvík, the now-former director of the hospital. Mr. Ludvík led the institution from 2000, except for a brief tenure as minister of health. He is suspected of having ‘skimmed’ several percent off contracts awarded by the hospital, and of accepting bribes. He was dismissed by the minister of health on February 24th. Also charged are Mr. Ludvík’s deputy, Pavel Budinský; the head of the Czech Sports Union and lawyer Miroslav Jansta; and representatives of the Geosan Group construction company.
The Motol scandal has far-reaching connections. Criminal investigators have been mapping the assets of Pavel Budinský, until this week the deputy director of operations and technology. It appears that that he arranged meetings in his office and in Prague restaurants at which he demanded money for brokering various hospital contracts or negotiating benefits. According to documents obtained by the iROZHLAS.cz server and Radiožurnál, investigators have found that Mr. Budinský owns real estate in Costa Rica and Montenegro, which he apparently could not have earned legally. His wife, Zdeňka, has also been investigated for her role in managing the properties abroad.
Fresh developments in the scandal have continued since Monday 24th. The following day, the initial number of sixteen people charged rose to seventeen. Then, on February 26th, it came to light that the Ministry of Health has halted billion-crown subsidies to Motol Hospital “for preventive reasons”. This step has been taken to safeguard projects of national interest; the construction of the Motol oncology centre is a milestone within the National Recovery Plan, which will see reforms and investments in seven priority areas across Czech society. One of the seven is the “health and resilience of the population”, and so Czechia has committed to strengthening cancer prevention. The European Commission has allocated a total 228.4 billion crowns to the country for the National Recovery Plan.
