Which thieving public institution will the finance minister ask Deloitte to audit next?

A few weeks ago, I drew your attention to the plentiful business dealings between ČEZ and Deloitte Advisory, the Czech branch of the world's largest accounting and consulting firm.

I was puzzled why Deloitte’s local economist, Ludek Niedermayer, should have chosen publicly to question the value to taxpayers of the CASA contract, given who stands behind the deal. Does Deloitte really wish to remind us of its expertise in the Czech defence sector, and of its involvement, in the person of its former chairman and managing partner, Otto Jelinek, in the Gripen bribery scandal? And why would Deloitte risk upsetting the finance minister, the man who appoints the supervisory board of ČEZ, one of its best clients?

Furthermore, why would Deloitte risk upsetting the very person who has only recently hired it to audit the use of EU funds in the Usti Region? Readers will recall that the European Court of Auditors has identified what it calls the “systematic adjustment” of reports on EU funding use in the Czech Republic prepared by Kalousek's ministry. It has now required him to appoint an external auditor to investigate. Kalousek chose Deloitte Advisory.

I assume that Niedermayer's role is to bolster the public image of Deloitte in the Czech Republic, and that anything he writes for the local media will have little impact on the bottom line, or even on the firm's long-standing relations with Miroslav Kalousek. If its success in winning mandates from state-run and -owned institutions is anything to go by, Deloitte is still very much persona grata with this government, and with the finance minister in particular.

I wonder which thieving public institution Deloitte Advisory will be asked by Kalousek to audit next, in search of more 'systematic adjustments'. CzechInvest perhaps? Now that really would be something! How so?

Otto Jelinek's successor as managing partner of Deloitte Advisory is Josef Kotrba, who is married to lawyer and erstwhile ČSSD politician Petra Buzková. Buzková’s law firm worked for CzechInvest under Alexandra Rudyšarová, who is now suspected of having chanelled EU funds to her buddies. Kotrba's wife sat on the supervisory board of Ariana Capital, apparently Rudyšarová’s favourite consultancy at the time.

In other words, if Deloitte Advisory is hired to look at CzechInvest, the husband might find himself auditing his own wife. I presume that the Czech Establishment's most trusted supplier of independent audits and valuations would hurry to excuse itself from such a mandate on the grounds that its managing partner wished to avoid a potential conflict –if not at work then certainly at home.