Final Word from Tuesday, July 23, 2013
When Zdeněk Žák was sacked four years ago by Petr Bendl as deputy transportation minister and supervisory board chair of Czech Railways, he was complaining to whoever would listen about the disappearance of Kč 12bn crowns at the railroad. Žák is now head honcho at the ministry and complains that we still don't know, four years later, whether the money disappeared or just what happened to it. He told Impuls that he wants some answers, and then he proceeded to sack five of the nine members of the current sup. board. Žák, other Rusnok ministers and Senior Olomouc Prosecutor Ivo Ištvan are all bringing about dramatic personnel changes at the highest levels, but is it really in the name of cleaning up government and state-owned companies? Or is it instead just an excuse for taking revenge on those who have done them wrong and for installing a new guard that will take up where the old guard left off?[Czech Republic České dráhy ODS State]
Glossary of difficult words
out with the old - the actual expression is "out with the old, in with the new," but we have modified it to suggest that the "old" might be replaced by another version of the "old";
head honcho - the person in charge;
to leave off - to discontinue (an activity).