Culture minister resigns amidst corruption allegations

Czech Culture Minister Jiří Besser tendered his resignation to the prime minister on Thursday amidst allegations of corruption and unethical behavior. The minister said that while he was innocent of any wrongdoing he felt that he lacked support in the cabinet and in his own party which would allow him to defend his case. He is the seventh minister forced out of the Nečas government since it took office in June of 2010.

Jiří Besser, photo: CTK

Martin Kocourek, Vít Bárta, Pavel Drobil and now Jiří Besser - all were forced to leave the Nečas cabinet after failing to explain suspect financial transactions or irregularities in business dealings. Jiří Besser neglected to claim part ownership in a US-based company and property in Florida worth 230, 000 US dollars in his property statement. It moreover emerged that another shareholder in the said company, Pavel Hrách, an old friend of the minister’s, had been convicted of corruption.

The case, brought to light by the internet daily Insider, was more bad publicity for a government which has made the fight against corruption its top priority. The embattled minister – who claims that the failure to include the Florida company in his property statement was an oversight and the said Mr. Hrách simply and old friend, was quickly given to understand that his presence in the cabinet was no longer desirable. Not only would his case tar the government’s reputation but it would damage his own party TOP 09 which had prided itself on being the only coalition member untainted by corruption scandal. The party’s parliamentary leader Petr Gazdík indicated that TOP 09 would not rally behind its minister.

Petr Gazdík

“I think the most serious aspect of what we know is that the minister clearly had business dealings with a man who had been convicted several times. That is ethically and morally quite unacceptable.”

The embattled minister, who was on a working visit to the Vatican when the scandal broke, was meant to defend himself at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday night. However he failed to show up and announced his resignation shortly after his return without facing any of his colleagues in the cabinet. His written resignation was promptly accepted by Prime Minister Petr Nečas who thanked Mr. Besser for his work.

“I was informed about Mr. Besser’s decision and under the circumstances I would not expect anything less. I will meet with him in the coming days so that we can discuss this face to face and give the matter some closure. But I want to say here and now that I respect the good work Mr. Besser delivered, particularly in the field of church restitutions.”

The junior coalition party Public Affairs which won seats in the lower house on a strong anti-corruption agenda says the number of corruption-related resignations in the centre-right cabinet are a positive signal that the government is sweeping before its own door as well. Radek John is the party’s parliamentary group leader.

Radek John

“The newly emerging political culture is that anyone touched by a corruption scandal resigns – not like in the old days when people linked to scandal remained in their posts.”

Whether or not the public is willing to accept this slant on the problem is unclear, but the country’s most recent corruption perception index speaks volumes - the Czech Republic has dropped even lower down the ladder from 53 to 57th place which it shares with Namibia and Saudi Arabia.