Interior Ministry plagued by unreliable screening certificates
According to a law passed shortly after the fall of communism, all senior civil servants must undergo security screening to prove that they didn't collaborate with the former communist secret police. The plan which was to keep former agents out of the country's new democratic structures has shown itself to be far from foolproof however. Twelve years after its approval, the Czech Interior Ministry is plagued by unreliable screening certificates and admits that in a number of cases former communist agents may be operating in high posts.
Two years ago the Interior Ministry first disclosed the extent of this problem. In response to a request from the Defence Ministry it conducted a new round of screening and was forced to admit that 114 members of the military counterintelligence service had erroneously been issued with clean screening certificates. In some cases this was intentional, in others a matter of negligence on the part of the respective authorities. In any case, a five year statute of limitations on this particular offence made it impossible to punish the culprits.
How many former communist agents bought a clean screening record in the early 90s? It is impossible to say. However those who do have negative screening certificates in their possession wield an effective tool against the ministry.
When the ministry recently published a new and more complete list of former agents, Frantisek Bores, whom the ministry claims to have been an agent for over 20 years, produced his clean certificate and promptly took the matter to court.
The Ministry has now issued him with a positive screening certificate which it claims to be the only valid one, but Mr. Bores, a highly placed official at the Finance Ministry, has no interest in it. The Interior Ministry itself is not sure where it stands, legally speaking, having issued two documents to the contrary.
So this sensitive matter will have to be resolved in court. The Ministry is awaiting the outcome of the court case with some degree of apprehension. The verdict is expected to set an important precedent. If the prosecutor should win this case then the Interior Ministry could find itself having to pay compensation for lost profits to former agents with clean screening certificates.
