The Czech government is failing to implement anti-corruption measures, which is mainly the fault of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), according to the Czech branch of Transparency International (TI), in a report today assessing three years of the coalition cabinet of Petr Fiala (ODS).
According to TI, Fiala tolerates and covers up the serious transgressions of Justice Minister Pavel Blazek (ODS), and also allows ODS MPs to push through laws that go against the public interest and play into the hands of private powers.
David Kotora, executive director of the TI Czech branch, said it is not in ODS’s DNA to curb corruption. “On the contrary, the party is trying to undermine all legislative measures. It downplays its own affairs and avoids responsibility. The promised change in actively addressing corruption has not and will not come with the current government,” he said.
Fiala styles himself as a model politician with a high political culture, but the reality is different, said Kotora. “The question arises as to who really runs the ODS and the government itself.”
For example, TI reports that the cabinet, led by Blazek and ODS parliamentary leader Marek Benda, is trying to ensure that the Czech Republic does not lose billions from the National Recovery Plan by adopting a law on lobbying, but is doing everything it can to fulfil the European Commission’s requirements only formally. The NGO claims that the Civic Democrats want to make the law as empty as possible, and avoid the effective enforcement of the rules in practice.
TI recalled the recent decision of the Czech Constitutional Court, which cancelled measures to tighten the rules for media ownership by politicians and subsidies paid to MPs and their companies, as the legislation was created as an unconstitutional rider. TI criticised the rider when it was introduced, and said the law on conflict of interest should have been amended in a proper legislative procedure.
According to TI, the reform of the antitrust office UOHS is also threatened. “If the reform is not passed, despite the announced support of the new Minister for Regional Development Petr Kulhanek (STAN), we risk continuing to have insufficient and unfair control of public procurement worth hundreds of billions of crowns,” TI said.
TI criticised Blazek for making statements directed against the media and state prosecutors. “A justice minister who has long worked to undermine democratic institutions and the rule of law is a mockery to all citizens of the Czech Republic,” said TI Czech’s chief analyst Marek Chromy.
