Control of politicians
— #2 Disclosure of contracts and other relations between the state and the entities owned by a politician or public official
If a politician or other public official declares or attest that he/she owns shares or interests in a company (firm), with the exception of those acquired at the stock market (regulated market), he/she shall be obliged to submit a statement of the company’s management whether the company is receiving public funds of any kind (public procurement, subsidy, lease, rent, sale or purchase of public property etc.). Politician or other public official shall be prohibited from any activity in the sector where those companies exercised their business (the revolving doors principle).
If it was possible to find out and prove how much those firms in which politicians and other public official own shares receive from public funds, it would be possible to directly monitor if they are not in a situation of conflict of interest (the Act on conflict of interest requires that politicians and other public officials make a declaration of honour which shares and interests in companies they own as well as the income obtained thereof – the value of those shares or interest has to be at least CZK 50 000, or 100 000 in case of multiple interests, the aggregate income must exceed in the calendar year the amount of CZK 100 000).
Sources:
- Report of the European Commission on the fight against corruption in the EU, Annex Czech Republic, Annex 3, COM(2014) 38 final , p. 6 and 11
- Czech Government Anti-corruption Action Plan for 2015, chap.2, p. 9
- Transparency International: Curbing Corruption in Public Procurement, A Practical Guide, 2014, p. 13
- Transparency International Czech Republic, Conflict of interest – Czech Republic [online], p. 4-5
- Titl, V., Palanský, M., Skuhrovec, J., Analysis of gifts by legal persons to political parties, Centre for Applied Economy of the Institute of Economic Studies (Charles University in Prague), 2014
- Public Money and Corruption Risks – A Comparative Analysis, Frank Bold, 2013, p. 79
- Transparency International: Corruption risks in the Visegrad Countries – Visegrad Integrity System Study, 2012, p. 18
- Novotný, J., Lichard, T., Palguta, J., Corruption: Not only a fiscal problem and its solutions in Kohout, P. and coll., Collection of texts of a working group for the fight against corruption, National Economic Government Council, June 2011), p. 45.
- Vondráček, O., Havrda, M., 21 recipes – Anti-corruption cookbook, Recipe 1: Reducing corruption opportunities, December 2013
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Justification and sources