Prague, Dec 6 (CTK) – The anti-corruption programmes of Czech arms makers are not sufficient according to the Transparency International (TI) corruption watchdog, its representatives said at a press conference yesterday.
Many Czech arms-making firms do not release information about the existence of their ethical and anti-corruption agenda though they mostly have codes of conduct and anti-corruption codes in their internal documents, TI said.
It has worked out an index with the aim to illustrate the anti-corruption measures taken by Czech arms makers.
It sent them dozens of questions and TI workers then assessed the publicly available information from the anti-corruption agenda.
On the basis of this survey, TI found out that more than half of the 23 addressed firms had no publicly available evidence of having taken its ethical and anti-corruption measures.
The firms’ internal documents provided for TI show that the firms are taking basic anti-corruption measures, but only internally and they do not release them.
Consequently, their business partners do not learn about them, for instance.
“We were trying to map the situation to find out how much open and comprehensive Czech arms makers are not only in the setting of their ethical and anti-corruption standards, but also in making them public,” TI analyst Milan Eibl said.
TI recommends that Czech arms-making firms make their anti-corruption agenda public. This is “a current global trend,” it says.
It also recommends regular anti-corruption trainings. Besides, TI says the Defence Ministry should demand a public anti-corruption commitment from the firms with which it signs contracts.
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