Věra Ježková

Věra Ježková graduated from the Faculty of Mining and Geology at VŠB-Technical University in Ostrava. She blew the whistle on the likely frustration of investment by semi-state electricity company ČEZ. Due to coal shortages, an investment in the modernization of the Prunéřov Electric Power Station is likely to be frustrated. The loss will run into billions of CZK. The public modernization contract was awarded to the company Škoda Power during the tenure of Martin Roman at the head of ČEZ. There is some circumstantial evidence about Martin Roman hiding behind the main contractor, Škoda Power. Because of her fearless intervention, she faced strong lobbyist pressures, scary anonymous messages and fabricated complaints designed to strip her of employment in the State Environmental Fund.

Věra Ježková spent 18 years as a team leader in a Severočeské doly brown coal mine. After the Velvet Revolution of 1989 she continued her studies and wrote a diploma thesis on coal reserves at Nástup Mine Tušimice (DNT). She had access to many internal documents proving miscellaneous “sharp activities” of alarming scope and strength, unfolding at DNT. Being a vocal critic of these practices, she was dismissed from Severočeské doly under strange circumstances, ostensibly for “organizational reasons”.

She was offered an environment consultant’s position at Severočeské doly on the proviso that she stops citing the environment ministry’s refusal to agree with and issue licence for mining in part of the face working place of DNT. She refused to accept such condition. In 2008 the Ministry of the Environment repeatedly warned about illegal coalmining there. When the mining administration continued to tolerate illegal mining in some DNT localities, Ms Ježková filed a complaint against several officials of the mining authority.

In 2006 she worked in the inspection department of the State Environmental Fund. Věra Ježková did not stop blowing the whistle and later filed a complaint against specific officials of the mining authority. She conducted numerous calculations and analyses and was openly critical at ČEZ general meetings of the management of the semi-state owned enterprise for deliberately ignoring such suspicious practices.

The ČEZ management stepped up pressures to silence Věra Ježková. Severočeské doly’s director of communications Vladimír Budinský asked her to help him handle information about the coalmining process. He wrote in an e-mail: “This is not to say that you are wrong—I am just looking for arguments that you could help us communicate so we can endure Greenpeace and the authorities, media-wise.” Eva Ježková refused to be accessory to such manipulations.

Another man who attempted to silence Věra Ježková was lobbyist Miloslav Kožnar, infamous for a role in the Pandur case. He constantly urged Věra Ježková to stop delving into the frustrated investment at the Prunéřov electric power plant. She made a recording of their meeting. The tape shows that Miloslav Kožnar coerced Věra Ježková to provide a nonsensical expert opinion in return for “lots of money” and emphasized that she continues to disseminate details about the spoilt investment in Prunéřov, all responsibility will fall upon the General Director of Severočeské doly, Jan Demjanovič, a mere pawn on the chessboard, who was not the mastermind of the fraud.

In spite of these circumstances, she never let herself be discouraged and has blown the whistle on fraud till this day, even though she faces considerable hurdles, including the threat of loss of employment.