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The Institute for Ethics and Economic
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Czech PM faces
corruption claim. It was reported that an anti-corruption watchdog has
asked Czech Prime Minister Stanislav Gross to explain how he paid for his
luxury apartment in
Seventeen more soccer officials accused in Czech
bribery scandal. Authorities have accused 17 more soccer
officials in a widening soccer bribery scandal that has shaken the
POLL SHOWS MAJORITY OF CZECHS BELIEVE CORRUPTION
ACCEPTABLE. About 72.3% Czechs think corruption acceptable, SC & C agency
poll reveals. According to the survey, 50% of those who have declined
corruption attempts saw their affairs handled with a delay while 25% said in
contrary. Government’s efforts to reduce the ill-manner including setting up
an anonymous phone for such case exposure, have come nowhere as people are in
fear of revenge (BBC Monitoring Service,
CIVIL SERVANTS MAY HAVE TO DECLARE ASSETS Under a proposal made by Interior Ministry, a selected circle of civil servants and those who have suspicious contacts or have demonstrably shown "questionable decision-making" can also have his or her property examined, will be subject to property check as an anti-corruption measure. Civil servants would face charge or dismissal if they fail to fulfill asset declaration in time or make false property statement, Mlada Fronta Dnes reported. (Czech News Agency 20 Aug 2003, summarized by Hanh Vu).
Corruption
Defendant Allowed to GO Overseas. A defendant in the
ALMOST 40% CZECHS ADMIT GIVING OF BRIBES Almost 40% of Czechs admit giving of bribes at present, 40 bn. crowns, which would be enough to finance the annual operation of more than 10 teaching hospitals with top standard equipment and equal to around 2% of GDP, are estimated to be given and taken in the name of graft each year. Most bribes go into pockets of civil servants and corruption is also very pronounced in the health sector, police, among judges and customs office, according to the findings of the latest poll on corruption completed by the Gfk agency in March. Each in ten Czechs believe that bribes are unnecessary while one quarter of respondents said they considered bribery natural. (Czech News Agency (CTK) 23 Apr 2003, summary by Hanh VU).
Study finds much corruption
in Czech Republic. It was reported that the Czech Republic has great
problems with corruption, especially in parliament when producing new laws,
according to a survey about corruption in EU candidate countries published in
Brussels by the Open Society Institute. The study highlights the extensive
immunity of politicians and the lack of measures against conflicts of
interest. (Prague Business
Journal, November 7, 2002, summary by Sherldine Tomlinson). Prague, FORMER TOP OFFICIAL DENIES CORRUPTION ALLEGATIONS. Former Foreign Ministry General Secretary Pavel Jaros was charged with corruption along with his predecessor Karel Srba. The firm that was awarded the contract for the reconstruction of the Czech Embassy in Croatia allegedly paid Jaros 5m korunas for the contract. According to General Secretary Vladimir Zavazal, the price of the construction work was 50% overvalued. "Someone allegedly bribed me in connection with the Zagreb embassy reconstruction contract. No-one ever offered me anything, I never asked for anything and I never received anything," Jaros told reporters. (BBC Monitoring Service- CTK news agency, August 12, 2002, summary by Pavlidis George).
CZECHS BELIEVE CORRUPTION HAS INCREASED, POLL It was reported that nearly 50 per cent of Czechs believed that corruption has increased during the past four years, according to a poll. The poll revealed that 15 per cent of Czechs had given a bribe higher than 10,000 Czech korunas, while 6 per cent admitted that they had accepted a bribe. One-third said that corruption during the Social Democrats’ tenure had grown, while 16.3 per cent said that corruption had grown substantially. Only 4 per cent of the polled said that corruption had decreased and 46.4 per cent said that corruption had remained the same. 47 per cent of the pollers stated that bribes were most frequent in state administration, while 14.4 per cent said that bribes were most frequent in the police forces, 8.5 per cent said that bribes were most frequent in the health sector and 7.8 said that bribes were most frequent at courts. Some 3 per cent also said that bribes were most frequent in local politics ,while almost 4 per cent said that bribes were most frequent in state politics. (BBC Monitoring Service (CTK News Agency, Prague), April 25, 2002, summary by Sherldine Tomlinson). MINISTER AGAINST
PROPOSED WAY OF FIGHTING CORRUPTION It is reported that the Czech Republic Justice Minister Jaroslav
Bures opposes the Supreme State Attorney Marie Benesova’s proposition of
using directed provocation against corruption in the state bureaucracy.
Benesova has ordered an analysis of corruption in the Czech Republic where
the level of corruption will be quantified and possible solutions offered.
The Supreme State Attorney’s Office will hand over the report on corruption
to the government this summer. (BBC Monitoring Service (CTK News Agency,
Prague), April 4, 2002, summary by Sherldine Tomlinson).
CORRUPTION ALLOWS TERRORISM TO FLOURISH- CIVIC LEADERS PROCLAIM AT THE 10th ANTI- CORRUPTION CONFERENCE. At the 10th Anti- Corruption Conference held at the Czech Republic, lawyers, activists and politicians from over 150 countries have advocated for fair and open Government practices in order to deter terrorists and cut off their finances. In light of the September 11th terrorist attacks, Civic leaders of various countries insisted that the ideal way to combat terrorism is to fight the corruption that allows it to flourish by providing the finances. Members and supporters of the organizer, Transparency International, observed that big and small payoffs including those made to officials for obtaining false travel documents, bribes tendered to hide terrorists, etcetera would have been the key to the success of such an enormous task as undertaken by terrorists on September 11th. The participants hoped that the world attention on terrorism would provide a thrust to anti- corruption efforts and lead to a greater co- operation amongst agencies and Governments to root out the ill. (Yahoo, (AP) October 8, 2001, summary by Aruna Balakrishnan).
NUMBER OF CRIMES
COMMITTED BY POLICE OFFICERS ON THE RISE. Some 369 cases in which police officers have broken the law have been
exposed said Interior Minister Stanislav Gross. The number of
individual police officers caught committing crimes has also risen, from 181
last year to 239. (Czech News Agency, August 7, 2001, summary by
Barbara Gray). COMPETITIVE BIDDING MADE OPTIONAL TO SPEED UP CONTRACTING Evzen Kocenda, an associate professor of economics at Charles University in Prague, expressed concern that open competition is being bypassed by government officials in an effort to avoid lengthy dilemmas plaguing major bidding contests in the country. The Ministries decide whether to opt for public bidding based on whether it ‘in the public interest’; however, there is no set definition for what qualifies as ‘in the public interest’. Billions of taxpayer crowns are spent on essential projects such as highway construction and rearming the police force, and quick decisions can have dire consequences. Two such projects cited by Mr. Kocenda are the massive highway extension project connecting central and north Moravia and the multi billion crown contract to upgrade all government and ministry offices’ telephone systems. A reputation for nontransparent economic conditions may curtail foreign investment. (The Prague Post, Apr 11, 2001, summary by Marg Reynolds).
STUDENTS’ FORUM Transparency International has announced an
invitation to college students to participate in the Students’ Forum of the
10th International Anti-Corruption Conference to be held October
7-11, 2001 in Prague, Czech Republic.
Proposals for papers to be presented at the conference are welcome and
conference information may be located at http://www.10iacc.org (TI Release, THE CULTURE OF BRIBERY. Transparency International ranks the Czech Republic 39th among the 99 nations that it monitors for economic corruption. Every fifth Czech has been compelled to give a bribe, most often by health care officials and state administrators. The situation is gradually improving due to government-sponsored awareness programs such as "Together Against Corruption." Bribery, though, remains a persistent hangover from communist times. A study by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development shows that companies in the Czech Republic spend on average 4.5 percent of their annual income on bribes. "It's a real barrier to business here," says Mr. Weston Stacey, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Prague. "Corruption delays the period between when you have an idea and when you get it into operation. And for entrepreneurs without much money that's a very critical factor. It's delayed by the petty grasping of small bureaucrats," adds Mr.Weston Stacey. Evzen Kocenda , an economist and the co-author of a recent report on corruption in the Czech Republic, estimates that the "gray economy" (untaxed money from bribes) accounts for about 20 percent of the total GDP in the Czech Republic. And that most of this consists of large-scale bribes (Source: The Prague Post, February 13, 2001, summary by Pavlidis George). Corporate Governance:
Wall Street Journal, Nov. 8, 2000 (Front page sec. C) notes that this country
is among the lowest ten in corporate governance by CLSA, Salomon Smith
Barney. This means that shareholders do not get equitable treatment and
disclosed information can be false and misleading. The laws governing duties of managers, accountants, etc.
are inadequate or not enforced properly. Private computer reveals politician (Vorarlberg online, 18.8.00, http://www.vol.at/tmh/zr/national/computer/news-47528.shtm). Anticorruption
Service of the Czech Police. This unit was established as a part of the Czech
Police Presidium. LTC Zbynek Cermak is in charge as an acting director. odhal@mvcr.cz You
can also contact the Public Relations Department of the Police Presidium moos@mvcr.cz or visit the web site of the
Ministry of Interior.
http://www.mvcr.cz (We
thank Marcel Audy,
Vice
Consul for this information). The
OECD anti-Corruption report on the The Index of Economic Freedom (by Driscoll-Holmes-Kirkpatrick) for 2001 places Czech Rep. in the “Mostly Free” category with a rank of 27 (Ranks range from 1 for Hong Kong to 155 for North Korea, Wall Street Journal, Nov. 1, 2000). H. D. Vinod’s trimmed correlation analysis indicates that countries free from economic regulation are less corrupt. After allowing for some exceptions by 20% trimming, the correlation is near 0.9.
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Design: Theo den Brinker |
Copyright:
Hrishikesh D. Vinod 2000 |
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