Budweiser: more shady machinations and speculations
Reporting season may be upon us, but who can really work up an interest in Big Beer’s profits going up or down while colourful Czech politicians are busy writing yet another cliff-hanger in the never-ending Budweiser saga?
In mid-February 2012 it transpired that the Czech Ministry of Agriculture has launched an audit of Budweiser Budvar’s books. Allegedly, this audit is meant to unseat the brewer’s long-serving CEO Jiří Boček.
As Budweiser Budvar is a state-owned brewery, an independent audit of its books seems like the most normal thing in the world. Not to some Czech politicians and Budweiser Budvar’s executive suite, though. Czech media commentators say that protests are practically inevitable should Budweiser Budvar’s books be checked. As the argument runs, control of financial management at Budvar is a covert manoeuvre to clear the way for the American rivals.
Crikey. That’s a new one to us. Who would have thought that anybody in his or her right mind would oppose transparency and accountability, especially if the company in question is ultimately owned by the Czech people?
Well, you see, this is the Czech Republic. Apparently, the contract to audit Budweiser Budvar hasn’t gone to one of the global heavyweights in the industry like Ernst & Young or KPMG. Incidentally, it did not go to Transparency International (TI) either. The international corruption watchdog declined an offer from the Minister for Agriculture to take part in the ongoing audit of Budvar. TI director David Ondráčka was quoted as saying in early February that his refusal was due to the fact that TI could not cope with the extra workload and moreover did not like the way the whole issue had become politicised.
Actually, the Ministry’s contract to audit Budweiser Budvar went to a really funny outfit (and you can read all kinds of meanings into "funny" here) called HZ Consult through a public tender. Tender or no tender, this was a mistake.
Despite the fact that the Czech HZ Consult wins state contracts, Czech media complain that there is very little information available about the firm which doesn’t even have a website.
No wonder, HZ Consult does not have a website. They cannot afford one. Again, allegedly, the Ministry is paying HZ Consult only CZK 200,000 (about EUR 8,000) for auditing Budweiser Budvar, while HZ Consult allegedly will send in 15 auditors to do the job.
We are not sure who is fooling whom here because no decent auditing firm can do a proper audit for so little money. Whatever the case, HZ Consult may be a funny outfit and the public tender may have been rigged - but it’s still hard to see why at Budweiser Budvar they are fighting an audit tooth and nail. Surely Budweiser Budvar’s books are spick and span and above reproach?
Moreover, what new insight into Budweiser Budvar would Anheuser-Busch gain (that they did not know already) if the Czech brewer were audited by independents? That the state-owned brewer is over-achieving and sitting on a huge pile of cash?
Now if this were really the case, we think every Jana and Pavel in the Czech Republic should be told so that they can take pride in their national treasure being extraordinarily well-run.
