Registr smluv pod lupou: užitečný nástroj pro občany a strašák korupce

The Anticorruption Endowment (NFPK) and Reconstruction of State anticorruption platform have launched an analytical report project to graphically highlight practical benefits of the Register of Contracts. Our first report exposes a series of strange circumstances shrouding the conduct of MP Radim Fiala (SPD). The Register of Contracts is an important instrument of public control; our short videos are designed to give the public an insight on the scope of information offered by this tool.

A series of ten short videos will graphically demonstrate the scope of information that could be gleaned by means of the Contract Register and how to utilize and interpret such findings. “We want to show that the societal benefits of the Contract Register are truly enormous. We believe it is especially important in an atmosphere when part of the lower house and Senate is pressing for the register to be scrapped completely or at least significantly truncated,” says Josef Karlický from Reconstruction of State.

The Register of Contracts helps to expose manipulated public procurement episodes, overpriced purchases, disadvantageous sale of assets, or clientelist cobwebs tying politics to business. However, not all citizens can work with the register so as to find interesting information and relationships. “We’d like to teach the broad public to work with the register. Therefore first we must show them how to efficiently use the register, how to analyse register data, or how to go about anomalies if detected,” Josef Karlický explains.

Scourge of dishonest politicos and bureaucrats

The Register of Contracts became applicable in the Czech Republic on 1 July 2016 and became operable exactly one year later. Due to this instrument, obliged entities must newly publish the text of every contract in excess of CZK 50,000 without VAT, otherwise such contracts are deemed invalid. “Since that time, virtually everybody – a journalist or an opposition leader – has been enabled to check the business activities of the State, regions, municipalities, state enterprises, health insurers, public higher-education institutions, or companies owned by the State, regions and municipalities,” says Janusz Konieczny of the Anticorruption Endowment.

Part 1 – Business orders of MP Radim Fiala (SPD)

MP Radim Fiala’s strange enterprise

The first part of the series was inspired by monitoring the activities of new MPs and following their footprints in the Register of Contract. We wanted to know if their firms do business with the State or municipalities and to identify the source of their business orders. Veteran MP Radim Fiala, chief of the SPD deputy club, stands out as a most interesting “find”. The firms of Radim Fiala, which faced several foreclosures before his arrival in politics, have since them been awarded an unusual number of contacts, often from interesting principals. “Thanks to the public register of contracts, even SPD voters may safely conclude that this is not a ‘campaign waged by corrupt media’ but a set of hard facts,” independent analyst Dan Urbánek, who has contributed to our project, says about our findings. Detailed information is available from the actual video (in Czech only).

Public institutions must be on their guard. Our projects takes no prisoners and targets all political figures and public institutions. We are working to analyse further cases and irregularities the public should be aware of.

The Anticorruption Endowment (NFPK) is a fully independent initiative by people radically unprepared to accept a high level of corruption in state administration. One of our goals is to help expose corruption in state administration and support projects exposing corruption.

Reconstruction of State is a civic platform, associating people resolved to fight corruption and clientelism and demanding a greater transparency of public administration. It consists of almost 20 NGOs promoting principles of good governance, transparency and accountability in public administration.

Contacts: Dan Urbánek, Analyst, cooperates with Reconstruction of State and the NFPK, e-mail: dan.urbanek@protonmail.ch, Janusz Konieczny, NFPK Analyst, tel.: 604 270 132, e-mail: janusz.konieczny@nfpk.cz