Alliance of business leaders, politicians take on corruption

The American Chamber of Commerce has announced the most collaborative effort to date in the battle against corruption in public tenders in the Czech Republic, but whether a coalition of politicians and business groups can produce real results remains to be seen.

Weston Stacey, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Prague (AmCham), has been an outspoken critic of the lack of transparency in business deals between the state and the private sector in the Czech Republic. In a surprise announcement March 10, Stacey said the chamber will form a coalition of business associations and political parties to draft an anti-corruption amendment to the public tender law as soon as possible. Stacey told The Prague Post that corruption in the tender process is dirtier than ever.

"It's gotten to the point that anyone involved in tenders - both the winners and the losers - is automatically assumed to be guilty of doing something wrong. Yet we never seem to get to the point where people are prosecuted," he said. "It's equally AmCham's fault that nothing has been done, because we haven't worked enough with politicians or built a consensus among business associations. Now, we're telling businesses, 'If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.' "

AmCham plans a two-tier system to tackle corruption, according to Stacey. First, an oversight committee composed of political, academic and business representatives with knowledge of the tender process will be formed to decide the principles on which to act. Next, lawyers and ministry officials will meet to discuss and draft anti-corruption legislation.

Stacey's efforts have received vocal support from the German Chamber of Commerce, TOP 09, the Social Democrats and the Green Party, which has already collaborated with AmCham to draft eight specific anti-corruption measures.

According to Green Party Chairman Ondřej Liška, eight measures have been submitted to Parliament and are up for debate in the coming days. The measures - which include disclosure of all information pertaining to public tenders on the Internet and full disclosure from participants with possible conflicts of interest - are designed to bring more transparency to the tender process.

"We are very interested in collaboration with the American Chamber of Commerce, as we share the same goal: introducing measures that would tame the 'unbearable lightness of corruption' in this country," Liška said.

TOP 09 will make the fight against corruption in the tender process "one of its main priorities," according to Jan Jakob, spokesman for the party, who added that "the only solution is total disclosure in public procurements."

Not all supporters of the AmCham's efforts are so optimistic about the likelihood of results, however.

Jo Weaver, board member at the International Business Forum (IBF), said IBF has not yet been approached by AmCham but would be happy to collaborate in any way possible.

But Weaver lamented the fact that even the most concerted effort among business associations might not be enough to curtail the "deep-rooted" level of corruption in the Czech Republic.

"All of the chambers, in particular the American Chamber, have looked at ways to fight corruption in the past, and most have their own rules in relation to their members," she said.

"Change will only come when the Czech man in the street says ... 'enough is enough.' But, if we don't at least try, and keep on trying, then we definitely won't get anywhere," she added.

The necessity of reform in the tender process has long been common knowledge, Weaver said. But some experts, including Vladimíra Dvořáková, director of the political science department of the Prague University of Economics, fear the recent support of political parties for anti-corruption legislation is only pre-election lip service.

"Everybody is speaking against corruption - mainly before the elections - and there has been some legislation passed, but the problem is that no high-ranking politicians have ever been investigated," she said. "On the other hand, no specific chamber has ever taken such an initiative before."

The legislation Dvořáková referred to is a bill developed by Interior Minister Martin Pecina and introduced to the government Jan. 11. The bill, which amends the state's criminal procedure, penal code and tax code by developing a system of undercover anti-corruption agents, passed through the budget committee March 11 and is ready for debate by the security committee.

Markéta Matlochová, spokeswoman for the Interior Ministry, said that the ministry has not been approached by AmCham for collaboration but that corruption is far too pervasive to be tackled by any ministry or organization acting alone.

"The Interior Ministry has said since the beginning that our proposal is only the first necessary step in the general fight against corruption, which is not limited to public tenders, of course," she said. "We believe these efforts can be successful if the coalition is willing to cooperate with us."

Stacey realizes it will be a challenge to get all interested parties to work together and to achieve results. But he remains adamant about the necessity of concrete efforts to fight corruption.

"Corruption is like the flu: You adapt rules, and it mutates to get around those rules," he said. "Our efforts won't end corruption forever. Let's take it one step at a time."

Stephan Delbos can be reached at
sdelbos@praguepost.com