The anti-corruption counselling center was established. A publication (cookbook) “How to face a corruption”” was one of the project outputs as well as the special internet section and the anti-corruption library. A workshop for the NNO representatives was organised durign the first year of the project implementation. The number of clients (individuals, companies, public authorities) and cases assited by the Center (available at Center’s Activity Report of 2006 and 2008) amounts to several hundreds every year. Lawyers employed by the TIC assist the individuals at the court if necessary and the TIC also organises public debates in the municipailities where particular case takes place with good results and impacts on transparency of the local governments´processes. The project is ongoing. There has been different funding every year. The anti-corruption number 199, operated by TIC (outsourcing), is funded by the Ministry of Interior. Some of the clients of the anticorruption line 199 are consequently assisted by the Center.”
Country: Czech Republic
Anti-Corruption Education
Training project with the goal of reducing the scope of corruption in the public administration in the territorial self-governing units (municipalities and regions); it aimed at increasing the capacity of local government officials in detecting individual cases of corruption, applying suitable anti-corruption tools to cases of corruption, evaluating the effectiveness of anti-corruption measures in local government authorities and training on law on conflict of interest by tailored trainings.
Arms Trade Control
The project focused on establishing regular contact and communication with relevant Czech parliamentarians and other relevant parties and on monitoring and analysing the existing legislation and documents. It also helped increase the information value of regular publication of detailed reports on arms and military material exports from the Czech Republic.
Certification of Non-governmental Non-Profit Organisations
A system of NGOs certification tailored to the Czech environment was to be developed, drawing on examples from Germany, the Netherlands and Norway. Workshops were organised and a feasibility study conducted, showing different models of certification.
Coalition for Suppression of Information within the Democratic Framework
A coalition of three non-governmental organisations was created to meet the purpose of the project: TIC, Iuridicum remedium and Otevřená společnost, o.p.s. The project carefully monitored and analysed the legislative process, lobbyied the Government Legislative Council, the government ministers and selected MPs. A workshop was organised in the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Parliament, dedicated to suppression of information, legal analyses and information materials were published on the issue.
Conflicts of interest
In order to reduce political corruption the project aimed at enactment of an effective law on the conflict of interest. TIC proposed a draft law and managed to build a coalition around it, advocate the draft successfuly and push it through; the law went into effect as of January 1, 2007. Media campaign was part of the project.
Educational seminars – Quality and Integrity in Public Procurement
Two seminars were organized in the framework of the project, focusing on the issues of corruption risks related to public procurement and identification of anti-corruption tools. Both seminars were targeted on public officials responsible for public procurement processes and/or its supervision at ministries, in the regions or big cities, and at executive bodies of structural funds.
Entries into the Commercial Register
A slow process and the complexity of the legal conditions connected to entries into commercial register led to a high number of mistakes in the registration applications handed to the courts. Mistakes in the applications lead to the courts returning the applications for review or for supplementary information. There was no standardized procedure and application format. A database of standard applications for the commercial register was created within the project and consequently published on the website of the Justice Ministry. Business and non-business applicants could then receive authoritative information concerning the requirements of individual courts, which increased the legal quality of individual applications and as a result partially simplified the registration process in the Czech Republic and narrowed down the room for corruption.
Index V4
The primary aim of was to propose an innovative methodology for measuring an institution’s tendency towards corrupt behaviour and then use this methodology to investigate the level of corruption in the public administrations of the capital cities of the Visegrad 4 countries (CZ, SK, HU, PL). A comparative survey Index 4 was carried out in the capitals focusing on public procurement, internal audits, ethical codexes,conflict of interest and access to information. The results of the survey can be downloaded at http://www.transparency.cz/index.php?lan=cz&id=2500. The research into the level of corruption in the public administrations of the capital cities of the V4 served as a tool for putting pressure on political representatives. The project was a continuation of the efforts made in the project “A Corruption-Free Town Hall””.”
Political Corruption – Transparent Processes in Political Decision-Making I
Specific objectives achieved during the first phase of the project were: strengthening the internal capacity of TIC in the area of fighting political corruption; drawing attention to individual systemic shortcomings from which the Czech politics suffer, especially in the areas of political parties financing; legislative process; politicisation of public administration (clear definition of roles of politicians and public officials); internal democracy within the parties (selection of candidates for elections); investigation of criminal offences of elected representatives. The project outputs include an opinion survey on the transparency of political parties financing, conference and a publication “Transparent processes in political decision-making””.”
Prosecution of corruption and other serious economic crimes
The project activities (an analysis) aimed to initiate a debate on usefulness of the introduction of special anti-corruption institutions that were established in Slovakia to the Czech environment. A study “How effective are the Czech and Slovak law enforcement agencies”” was published and a conference on prosecution of corruption in the Czech Republic and Slovakia took place.”
Public Contracting – Transparent Competition for Public Funds
The ongoing project focuses on different problems related to public procurement; it involved monitoring of public procurement focused on the area of military procurement, policy paper on EU black listing standards, creation of the “Map of Clientelist Practices”” in the area of public construction contracts, seminars, concrete legislative proposals improving the transparency of the processes, participation at the international conferences, improvement of the applicant website.”
Public Debates
In cooperation with Respekt weekly a series of debates was organised on different issues starting with corruption in sport,arms trade control,conflict of interest, etc.
Is East-Central Europe Backsliding? EU Accession Is No “End of History”
In the textbooks on democratic transition, Central and Eastern Europe provides the model of success. Yet in Brussels concern over the politics of the new EU members has been mounting. The day after accession, when conditionality has faded, the influence of the EU vanished like a short-term anesthetic. Political parties needed to behave during accession in order to reach this highly popular objective, but once freed from these constraints, they returned to their usual ways. Now we see Central and Eastern Europe as it really is—a region that has come far but still has a way to go.