Kalousek, korruption and Kapsch
You can say all kinds of nasty things about Miroslav Kalousek, but you have to hand it to him, he is one clever rascal. Who else would have the effrontery, after a decade of dishing out pork and graft as the budget czar, to accuse the Sobotka cabinet of being the champions in awarding crooked contracts? No other Czech government has doled out so many no-bid deals, TOP 09 said yesterday. To demonstrate his point, Kalousek threw the government's Reconstruction of the State promises back in its face, accusing the coalition of being hypocritical. Kalousek is also hypocritical, of course, but he just happens to be entirely right this time. The government should stop awarding so many contracts without proper tenders! For example, Kapsch ČR shouldn't be given any more no-bid toll contracts. And if that angers Kapsch's shareholders (one of whom is rumored to be a certain Miroslav Kalousek), that's just the way the cookie crumbles.
Glossary of difficult words
korruption - the German spelling; used here for alliteration and to point to Kapsch's Austrian roots;effrontery - audacity, nerve or gall;
to dish out - to distribute, dispense or issue;
pork/pork barrel - the use of government funds for projects designed to please voters or legislators and win votes;
graft - gains from corrupt practices;
to dole out - to allocate, distribute or hand out;
that's the way the cookie crumbles - that's how things turn out (often used of an undesirable but unavoidable outcome).