Christian Democrats demand Prague mayor’s resignation

Christian Democrat leader Cyril Svoboda demanded on Monday that Pavel Bém, the mayor of Prague, resign from his post after a second audit of the disputed Opencard project confirmed the concerns of its previous auditors. The project, originally meant to facilitate the life of Prague residents by making it possible to pay for parking, public transport fares, municipal library fees and other services with just one card, has cost the city 888 million crowns and generated little to no profit. Five years after its inception, the Opencard is still used by only a few people. Mr. Bém ordered the audit because of the high costs of the project. Auditors consider the city’s dependency on the private sector company Haguess, which secured the Opencard public tender, problematic. On Tuesday, Prague City Hall’s director of information technology Václav Kraus was the first employee to step down in reaction to the audit. Later that day, Mr. Bém told journalists that the Christian Democrats needed to stop voicing pointless accusations.