Prague/Strasbourg, March 2 (CTK) – There is a positive shift to a bigger control of Czech party financing, David Ondracka, head of the Czech branch of Transparency International, told CTK in reaction to the report on corruption of the Group of States against Corruption (GRECO) released yesterday.
“However, the working and courage of the new supervising office will only be seen during the battle, in the election campaign for the Chamber of Deputies and the president,” he added.
The Czech Republic has made a considerable progress in its struggle against corruption and the efforts to achieve transparency of party sponsoring, GRECO said.
GRECO said Prague had fulfilled nine out of 13 recommendations the Czech Republic ought to have followed.
On the other hand, “the authorities are urged once more to address the two remaining concerns, namely the need to clarify that all public sector employees, in particular those exercising ancillary jobs, fall within the scope of the bribery and trading in influence provisions of the Criminal Code and to accelerate the process of signing and ratifying the Additional Protocol to the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption,” the report said.
“With regard to transparent political financing, GRECO is pleased that, after a lengthy process and substantial delay, a package of amendments to the Political Parties and Movements Act and to several electoral laws has finally been adopted,” it added.
“This represents an important achievement which will lead to more transparency in respect of political financing in the Czech Republic,” the report said.
“Significant improvements have been made to make political parties’ accounts more informative and transparent in respect of various forms of income, expenditure, loans, etc.,” the report said.
“Measures have also been taken to make financial reports more easily accessible to the public by means of using timely on-line publication. Similar measures have been applied in respect of financing of election campaigns,” it added.
“The establishment of the Office for the Oversight of Financing of Political Parties and Movements is another important positive development which will need to be reassessed once it is fully operational, in respect of issues such as its true independence and efficiency, which to a large degree depends on its resources and means available, including sanctions,” the report said.
The group has repeatedly called on the Czech authorities to make it clear to all civil servants that they are within the definition of bribery and indirect bribery under the Civil Code.
GRECO also asks Prague to speed up the process of signing and ratifying the addendum to the convention on corruption.
GRECO concludes that “the current level of compliance with the recommendations is no longer “globally unsatisfactory.”
Nikola Horejs, a representative of the Reconstruction of the State group, said the new rules of sponsoring of election campaign constituted a real progress.
“However, politicians are already trying to undermine the control in many ways,” Horejs told CTK.
GRECO associates about 40 states. It was established by the Council of Europe in order to monitor countries in the sphere of observance of anti-corruption standards in 1999.
