Statement regarding the "Reportéři ČT" program coverage of Česká televize that was broadcasted on January 14, 2008

15. 1. 2008

It is true that the Sodexo Pass company had closed a contract with the No Comment! company. This contract is by no means a secret agreement as was stated by the TV program coverage, it is a common business contract that fully complies with the laws of the Czech Republic and it represents a common practice within the area of public affairs of many organizations throughout the entire world.

A meaning and intention of the contract in question was the analysis of the legislative status, preparation of the documentation for a specific and material argumentation, and submission of such information to the involved and responsible subjects including the legislative bodies. The subject of the contract between the companies of Sodexo Pass and No comment! is very interesting in this viewpoint because similar agreements (the same as with the other business contracts) are usually not available to the media and they are typically subject to a policy of commercial confidentiality.
An allegation that the Sodexo Pass company had paid off the elections in the Czech Republic House of Representatives is not based on truth and we hereby object to it. The final representation of the statute in question was a result of free electoral policy of the individual legislators, alternatively of the political agreements at the government and parliament levels. With regard to the subject at hand, the role of Sodexo Pass company was only its active participation in the discussion that preceded the acceptance of the statute, and our organization had only presented material arguments, which supported the existent tax-exemption advantages of food vouchers for both the employees and the employers.

In the today's situation of the imminent threat to the tax-exemption advantages being currently applied to the employee benefit packages, the Sodexo Pass company, as one of the important players in the food voucher market, had considered its responsibility to actively contribute into the discussion at hand. To support the existing statute, we had utilized a professional agency to distribute the arguments of logical reasoning to the responsible individuals. We took advantage of an independent study that had proven the food-voucher system to be beneficial for all its participants including the government. Also in many European states and the countries overseas, the food vouchers are embedded into their legal systems with no regard to political orientation of the applicable governments.