According to the vice-president of the ANO movement, Alena Schillerová, the draft state budget for next year, which was finally submitted to the House of Representatives of the Czech Parliament (PSP ČR) by the resigned government of Petr Fiala, does not cover mandatory expenses and key investments for almost 96 billion crowns. She called it an alarming finding. The head of the ANO movement, Andrej Babiš, accused the outgoing government cabinet of forcing officials in individual ministries to manipulate the budget. Politicians stated this on Wednesday at a press briefing after the budget committee meeting in the PSP CR, reports the TASR reporter in Prague.
- The government of Petr Fiala submitted a draft of the state budget.
- Alena Schillerová criticized the failure to cover key budget expenditures.
- Andrej Babiš accused the government of manipulating the budget.
- Officials from the ministries reportedly refused to participate in the budget committee.
- The ministers in resignation defended the procedure of approving the budget.
According to Schillerová, who will probably be the future Czech Minister of Finance, the draft lacks, for example, 32 billion in the chapter of the Department of Labor and Social Affairs for pensions or sickness benefits, or approximately 37 billion in the State Transport Infrastructure Fund. Retired Finance Minister Zbyněk Stanjura refuses. According to him, only the emerging government is preparing an alibi so that it can increase the budget deficit for its plans from the government’s program statement.
They were allegedly banned by ministers from participating
Babiš criticized that officials from some ministries, whom the committee had invited, did not come to the committee’s meeting. According to the head of ANO, the ministers forbade them. “What specifically happened? Ministers (Vlastimil) Válek, (Marian) Jurečka and (Eva) Decroix forbade their subordinates to come to the budget committee and answer our questions when Mr. Stanjura no longer wants to answer,” Babiš was angry.
According to him, the outgoing Fiala cabinet introduced “terror” towards ministerial officials. “This government treated the officials like this and forced them to manipulate the budget, revenues and lied for almost the entire four years,” claimed the head of ANO. He did not answer the question of whether the emerging coalition is therefore considering increasing the budget deficit, even though it claimed that it would not do so.
The outgoing Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Marian Jurečka, criticized the procedure of the budget committee. According to him, if the committee in the PSP CR wants to invite a representative of the ministry to its meeting, it must send the invitation directly to the minister or his cabinet. “Neither I nor my cabinet received any such invitation,” he emphasized. He added that individual chapters of the budget are discussed at the relevant committees, so he expects that the part of the budget related to his agenda will be discussed at the social committee. “We are not here at Agrofert, that someone calls and everyone fulfills the owner’s instructions,” added Jurečka.
