Transparent financing of political parties
— #43 Identification of natural persons directly covering the costs of electoral advertisements
Each electoral advertisement, billboard for example, should include the following information: if the electoral advertisement is paid from the transparent bank account of the party: the number of the underlying contract, invoice number, transparent bank account number, date of the money transfer, unit price, party’s webpage where one can find the contract in question, the invoice and the bank statement proving the payment; if the electoral advertisement is paid directly by the natural person (outside the transparent bank account of the party or its accounting): number of the underlying contract, invoice number, transparent bank account number, date of the money transfer, name and surname of person who paid the advertisement for the party together with party’s approval with this electoral advertisement, unit price, party’s webpage where one can find the contract in question, the invoice and the bank statement proving the payment and party’s approval with this electoral advertisement.
If on any electoral advertisement there was an information allowing for traceability of the origin of financial donations and persons who provided those donations, it would be possible – even before the elections – to ensure an effective real-time public control of financing of political parties without the necessity to institute a special supervisory authority.
Sources:
- Evaluation Report of the GRECO Group of the Council of Europe regarding Transparency of party funding (Theme II) in the Czech Republic, Strasbourg, 1 April 2011, point 71.viii. a ix.
- Points 205 and 206 of Guidelines on political party regulation, CDL-AD(2010)024 (Venice Commission/OSCE/ODIHR), Venice, 15-16 October 2010
- Section 8.C. of Recommendation of Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly 1516 (2001) on the financing of political parties, 22 May 2001
- Point 109 of the Code of Good Practice in Electoral Matters (Venice Commission): Guidelines and Explanatory report, Venice, 18-19 October 2002, CDL-AD(2002)023rev
- REST. Transparent financing of political parties and electoral campaigns [online], Reconstruction of the state, 2013, principle 4
- Ondráčka, D., Vymětal, P., Transparent financing of electoral campaigns to the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic in 2013, Transparency International Czech Republic, Otakar Motejl Fund – Our Politicians, 2013, p. 15 - 16
- Vondráček, O., Havrda, M., 21 recipes – Anti-corruption cookbook, Recipe 8: Transparent financing of electoral campaigns, December 2013
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Justification and sources