The Kč 2m flash disk

Before Senator Pavel Eybert of ODS slipped a change into the "legal measure" on the public-procurement law for doubling the minimum requirement for holding a tender, a media blitz was launched for convincing the public of the impossibility of doing everyday government business without a change to the law. Psychiatrist Cyril Höschl told LN that lack of trust and a legislative "Absurdistan" required that a tender be held at the health ministry for every flash disk he wanted to buy. Development Minister František Lukl repeated this story a few days later on Rádio Impuls. They conveniently neglected to say that the public-procurement law itself merely requires tenders for such purchases if the amount exceeds Kč 1m. Either Höschl wanted to buy one hell of a flash disk, or the problem is on the ministerial level and won't be fixed by Eybert's amendment. Pres. Miloš Zeman, by the way, signed the Senate's "legal measure" on Fri., so the public-procurement law will soon allow Höschl, Lukl and others to go shopping for a Kč 1.99m flash disk.