Prague, Jan 25 (CTK) – The current Czech government has sharply reduced corruption in the country and it continues its effort, while facing no corruption scandals itself, PM Bohuslav Sobotka said after a cabinet meeting yesterday, reacting to Transparency International’s corruption perception index (CPI).
In the fresh CPI world rankings for 2016, the Czech Republic occupies the 47th position, together with Cyprus and Malta, ten positions down compared with the preceding year.
Sobotka’s (Social Democrats, CSSD) centre-left government was established in early 2014. The CSSD’s government partners are the ANO movement and the Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL).
“We have markedly reduced corruption in the past three years. In addition, the current government is not burdened with corruption scandals that would force ministers and senior officials to leave their posts. The government has been doing its utmost and corruption has been fought in the Czech Republic. The question of why people have this [different] feeling is worth analysing,” Sobotka said.
Commenting on the CPI results, the Czech branch of Transparency International said the Czech CPI deterioration mirrors the recent transformation of corruption cases, with the attention of pressure groups switching from individual corruption affairs such as overpriced contracts and subsidy scandals towards a rearrangement of the distribution of power.
People on the top political level actually no longer need to violate laws as they can adjust them in order to make their action legal, Czech TI director David Ondracka told journalists.
Further reasons for the Czech CPI decline are imperfect, missing and wrongly implemented laws, and also persisting open corruption cases which the judiciary fails to close quickly, Czech TI said.
rtj/dr/kva
