The Interior Ministry will begin a 10-day inspection of the presidential office on Monday. It intends to examine the handling of documents and files. The inspection was recommended by the parliamentary security committee, which dealt with the shredding of a paper by the Security Information Service (BIS) regarding the involvement of members of the Russian secret services in the Vrbětice explosion in 2014.
The Interior Ministry will carry out the check based on a complaint filed by the National Archives, said Hana Malá from the ministry’s press department. The office initially announced that the inspection would begin on Thursday, February 10.
Control of the handling of classified information falls within the competence of the NSA. The subject of the Interior Ministry’s inspection will be compliance with the law on archives and regulations related to the plan of conferring state honors by the president in 2019, Malá said.
The MPs recommended the inspection following findings that officers from the National Centre against Organised Crime (NCOZ) at the Castle were investigating whether people without security clearance were involved with a secret report on the 2014 explosions in Vrbětice, which Russian agents are suspected of having carried out. Subsequently, it turned out that the Castle had shredded the report.
The president’s office has denied any wrongdoing and instead suggested possible misconduct on the part of the BIS.