Prague, Feb 4 (CTK) – The Transparency International (TI) corruption watchdog has called on the Czech government coalition and opposition to speed up the debate on a draft amendment to the law on political parties’ funding in the Chamber of Deputies, TI director David Ondracka told reporters on Thursday.
If the MPs do not send it to the second and third readings quickly, the legislation might not take effect by the next general election due in 2017.
Though the parties release more information on their finances than they are obliged to under the current law, no progress can be reached without a special office to check their funding to be established under the new legislation, Ondracka said.
He pointed to the risk that the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of parliament, would not manage to debate the bill in this election term, he pointed out.
Even if it were smoothly passed, there would be only little time ahead of the general election to establish the supervisory office, Ondracka added.
“Some are interested in the new law not being applicable during the next election to the Chamber of Deputies,” he told reporters.
TI appreciates that most parties in parliament have opened transparent accounts. However, it points out that this step does not automatically enable to have a good track of their finances.
Petr Vymetal, from the University of Economics (VSE) in Prague, says the parties “subsidise” their transparent accounts from other non-public ones.
“Some parties opened them (transparent accounts) late, and some use them for incomes only. You will get a grasp of their donors, but apart from them, the parties have other accounts,” Vymetal said, adding that they fund their everyday operation and marketing campaigns from them.
Moreover, transparent accounts often do not reveal expenditures, he added.
Transparent accounts were for the first time used in the campaign ahead of the presidential election in January 2013. Though the parties are not yet obliged to use them, most of them do so on a voluntary basis.
Apart from an independent office to supervise the parties’ financial management, according to the draft amendment, the parties’ spending on election campaigns would be limited and they must establish transparent accounts.
TI plans to monitor as of February the parties’ funding of the autumn regional and Senate elections, similar to all previous elections since the presidential one in 2013. It will release the monitoring results on its website.
