Česky

Anticorruption barometer

Non-corrupt and professional public administration — #72 Whistleblowing to ombudsman

The public administration employee should announce his/her suspicion of unlawful behavior of public authority or corruption to the Public Defender of Rights (ombudsman).

If a public officer could announce corruption suspicion in public administration to the ombudsman, that is to an office outside hierarchical structure of public administration, neither the position of the announcing public officer could be jeopardised nor the prosecution of the announced corruption. Thanks to reception of these announcements, the ombudsman office could obtain more information about dysfunctioning of public administration against which it shall be proposing remedies.

Sources:

Czech Government Anti-corruption Action Plan for 2015, chap. 4, p. 16
Transparency International: Curbing Corruption in Public Procurement, A Practical Guide, 2014, p. 17
Transparency International Czech Republic: Whistleblowing is not snitching, A Guide not only for whistleblowers, September 2014, p. 57
Public Money and Corruption Risks – A Comparative Analysis, Frank Bold, 2013, p. 77
REST. Depolitisation of the civil service, Reconstruction of the State [online], 2013, principle 4
Transparency International: International Principles for Whistleblower Legislation – Best Practices for Laws to Protect Whistleblowers and Support Whistleblowing in the Public Interest, 2013, p. 7
Transparency International: Corruption risks in the Visegrad Countries – Visegrad Integrity System Study, 2012, p. 7 – 8
Oživení: Whistleblower protection, Analysis developed for the purpose of preparation of new legal regulation in Czech Republic, 2011, p. 33 - 37, 60 – 64
Transparency International Czech Republic: Whistleblowing and the protection of whistleblowers in the Czech Republic, November 2009, p. 15 – 17
Vondráček, O., Havrda, M., 21 recipes – Anti-corruption cookbook, Recipe 12: Corruption whistleblowing, December 2013

More about methodology

Justification and sources

Selected update

Updated: 08/2015 Parameter update history

Effectiveness:	0%
Progression:	30%
	Political promise to solve the problem

The submission of a legislative regulation of whistleblowing and the protection of whistleblowers is foreseen in the governmental Action plan and Conception for fighting corruption.

Compared to current state

Updated: 06/2017 Parameter update history

Effectiveness:	75%
Progression:	60%
	The law proposal is in the Lower Chamber

The Government proposal, which is in the Lower Chamber of the Parliament, does not foresee the possibility of announcement of illegal or other illicit acts to an external body different from the employer. The parallel MP proposal expects that the announcements would be filed with an external body, namely the Supreme Prosecution Authority, however, only with respect to criminal acts, excluding the announcements of deficiencies of the functioning of the public administration not amounting to a criminal act.