Protikorupční organizace: Návrh zákona o financování politických stran je dobrý. Zatím.

“The bill and ensuing amendment are surprisingly good—they introduce e.g. compulsory transparent accounts for election campaigns and more detailed annual reports, strengthen the independence of auditors, and thanks to registration codes on every billboard it enables checking if they were not commissioned illegally outside official books. However, there must be leverage to enforce the rules. This could be a snag—the Government Legislative Council suggests that the bill delete a supervising body, which would monitor the observance of the act and mete out sanctions for noncompliance. This body is small, with only ten auditors but od great value for the Czech Republic,” says EPS analyst Magdaléna Klimešová.

Existing legislation is completely insufficient and the situation in funding political parties is critical. The following are the key problems:

-        Economic management of political parties is not transparent.

-        There is no sufficient independent audit of content.

-        Election campaign spending grows uncontrollably.

-        Data on campaign funding is available to the public only in one printed copy in parliament.

-        There has long been speculation about big parties’ slush funds.

-        Current practices stimulate privatization of politics.

The new draft legislation could solve most of these problems. Its absence invites sharp international criticisms and leads to many corruption cases associated with party economic management.

“Setting up an independent office for the supervision of economic management of political parties seems to be the best solution. Such an office would have sufficient resources to keep an eye on party economics, to process citizens’ suggestions and to efficiently investigate into suspected irregularities and impose corresponding sanctions. The argument that it would be too costly holds no water. In terms of cost effectiveness it will rank among the less expensive democratic institutions” notes Radim Bureš from Transparency International.

The undersigned nongovernmental organizations support the interior minister’s proposal and recommend that the government pass the bill, including the setting up of the said Office. Any variant that does not include the Office and at the same time extends the duration further than by till 1 January 2013 will significantly weaken the value of the proposed legislation. The nongovernmental organizations undersigned further recommend that certain amendments be incorporated in the text, which would first and foremost prohibit the funding of political parties by legal entities, introduce transparent accounts on any and all party finances, introduce the rotation of auditors, and provide for overlapping of terms of office of the members of the audit office, who must not be re-elected.

The rejection of this cardinal anticorruption proposal would signal that the professed endeavour for solving this fundamental problem of our democracy is not meant in earnest.

 

Enclosures:

1. Open letter to the prime minister and government
2. Position document with necessary changes in the regulation of funding of political parties

Ekologický právní servis, Transparency International – Czech Republic, Oživení, Anticorruption Endowment (NFPK), Zelený kruh, Inventura demokracie

Contacts:

Radim Bureš

Transparency International – Czech Republic

Sokolovská 143, Praha 8

Tel.: 733 666 008

Email: RadimBures@transparency.cz

 

Magdaléna Klimešová

Ekologický právní servis
Drtinova 10, Praha 5
Tel.: 774 643 394

Email: magdalena.klimesova@eps.cz