Current Affairs Czech branch of Transparency International calls for comprehensive anti-corruption plan
The fight against corruption is seen as one of the top priorities of the emerging centre-right coalition government which met this week to approve a series of measures including the establishment of special courts, tightening reliability screening tests for policemen and civil servants and establishing the office of agent provocateur –undercover agents offering bribes. The plan has already come under fire from the Czech branch of Transparency International which describes it as lame and inefficient. Christian Falvey spoke to TIC branch head David Ondračka to find out what in particular presented a problem.
“The coalition should use the opportunity to initiate a very complex
anti-corruption strategy. The current situation is far from perfect and
there are a number of problem areas that need to be addressed
systematically.”
What specific points do you disagree with?
“We do not like the sting operation proposed which would involve using agent provocateurs. In our view there is no point in provoking artificial situations in which someone will accept a bribe and will be punished for it. In our view the main objective should be to improve the position of investigators working on real cases of crime and corruption. To assist them by motivating civilians to get involved in the process.”
How do you expect that to work on a practical level?
“Like if you have a criminal gang and one of the members decides to leave. He will want some kind of immunity from the police and, in exchange, agree to provide evidence which will make it possible to punish the entire network. That way whistle-blowers would become agents of sorts who would cooperate with the police in providing the necessary evidence.”
But obviously there are not enough such people coming forward if the future coalition is discussing establishing agent provocateurs…
“Well, the problem is that at the moment they are not very motivated to really blow the whistle and risk being punished anyway. We really need to motivate people to appear in court and take the stand against corruption and crime.”
David Ondračka, photo: CTK
I believe you are working on a counter-proposal of your own – what does
it entail?
“What we consider crucial is that there is clear political responsibility for the anti-corruption measures introduced. In our view either the prime minister or deputy prime minister should be directly responsible for the government’s anti-corruption policy. But in terms of preventive measures I think the key emphasis should be on the distribution of public funds. Procurement of EU funds and state subsidies should be made more open, more transparent and there should be a very good control mechanism in place. This is not working today. Some of the control mechanisms are formal and simply do not bring results.”
