Prague, April 23 (CTK) – The Czech Pirates have proposed that the law on the conflict of interest also concern the president who is the highest public official, they said on Monday in a statement that presented the respective bill which mainly wants to prevent the cumulation of political posts.
About 60 MPs from eight parties, or all except the right-wing opposition Civic Democrats (ODS), signed the bill.
The Pirates said the bill is not aimed against President Milos Zeman with whom they discussed the bill last week. Zeman took a neutral stance on the bill, they said.
Under the bill, the president would have to submit property statements once a year, like the other public officials. The president should not deal with issues in which his personal interests were concerned. If public and private interests clashed, the president would not be allowed to prefer the private interest.
The bill against the cumulation of political posts wants to reduce the financial motivation to cumulate posts. It would ban lawmakers from being paid for posts on boards of state-run companies. If public officials had more posts, they would receive only the pay for the highest of the posts in most cases.
The government will deal with the bill first and the parliament will discuss it afterwards.
