Transparency International’s national chapter in the Czech Republic released recently a National Integrity System assessment showing how “healthy” the main governance institutions in the country are, considering their resources, accountability, transparency and role in fighting corruption. The study showed that corruption in public procurement remains one of the main problems to be tackled.
According to the report, the “healthiest” institutions are the Ombudsman and the Supreme Auditing Office. These are, however, like islands of integrity in a system where fundamental institutions show weaknesses. The state prosecutor’s office, for instance, received the lowest score, mainly due to its lack of independence from political parties. On a positive note, however, this institution is currently undergoing important reforms expected to bring improvements in its performance.
A cross-cutting issue identified in the report refers to the accountability of institutions, which seems to be not so clearly defined in the case of institutions such as the police and the civil service. Both the concepts of accountability and integrity are not well translated into legal provisions applicable to the public sector, and this reveals the need for a broader debate on how regulations should more clearly reflect these principles.
Read the article “Health Czech! Any surprising results from the Czech Integrity System assessment?” on blog.transparency.org. The full study is available in Czech on transparency.cz.
