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Rozhovor o korupci, který dělal Jason Hovet z Czech Business Weekly
Battling corruption
By: Jason Hovet, 27. 03. 2006
As national elections inch closer, corruption scandals are sure to reach the front pages of the national media. But little will surprise Petr Štěpánek, who has been involved with groups fighting corruption at Prague City Hall for almost a decade.
With a new conflict of interest bill that went through the Senate March 16, politicians are stepping up efforts to tackle corruption. But Štěpánek, who lobbied for amendments to the bill, thinks the new law is even weaker than previous legislation. He has been taking on corruption in the municipal government since 1997 as chairman of the civic group Bohemian Greenways (Oživení), which promotes landscape and heritage protection, and since 2002 as a councilor at the Prague 4 Town Hall.
As a member of Prague’s first-ever anti-corruption committee, which started in 2003 and pushed through a tougher code of conduct at City Hall, he’s seen some of the very worst of local politics. This spring he’ll be taking his fight to the national level as a Green Party (SZ) candidate in the June parliamentary elections.
Petr Štěpánek
Born: Sept. 3, 1965, Kladno, Central Bohemia
Education: 1990, master’s degree from Faculty of Natural Sciences, Charles University; 2000, doctorate from Czech Academy of Science; both degrees in molecular biology Work history: Since 2002, Prague 4 Town Hall councilor; since 2000, lecturer at Charles University; since 1997, chairman of Bohemian Greenways (Oživení); since 1997, consultant on environment and good governance; 1998, spokesman, Ministry of Environment; 1991–96, teaching assistant at the State University of New York; 1990, Prague city councilor.
Štěpánek plans to push for environmentally friendly transportation and increased access to higher education, but his forte remains fighting corruption. He says that efforts at stamping out graft are no more than talk until all elected officials — and their spouses — are required to give full disclosure, and the power of the country’s highest controlling body, the Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ), is extended to municipalities.
Q: What’s the role of the anti-corruption committee?
A: It’s an advisory body on how to set the rules to prevent corruption. It’s a very political body, as each political party has a representative. It was reluctantly set up [at the beginning of] this election cycle by Prague City Hall, but it definitely [indicates] progress because this is the first time that the people in power and in opposition have confronted each other on issues of corruption in the Prague City Council.
Q: The committee’s biggest accomplishment was to set forth a code of conduct for those in City Hall. What did that achieve?
A: Basically, transparency. People in public office — in this case city councilors — should disclose their [business] activities and their income.
Q: You’ve described the code as “watered down.“ So what’s missing from the current code of conduct for City Hall?
A: Now it’s a political matter and will be discussed again in the political campaigns [for municipal elections] in the fall, but two things are missing. One is conflict of interest prevention and disclosure, especially disclosure by spouses.
Conflict of interest is a neutral term. You can get into a conflict of interest and be completely honest. It’s trivial but, say, [an official’s] partner has a computer company and the city buys computers and that person bids. So either that person shouldn’t bid or [the city official] should announce that [they] have a conflict of interest and won’t participate in the debate. Only disclosure can make public oversight possible and it’s especially important at a local level where you may be an unpaid council member and have your own business.
The second important thing is public procurement, which, currently, is very nontransparent. The rights of participation, review and appeal are only in the hands of the participants. The entire public procurement process is done behind closed doors. It’s OK up to the moment of the decision … but [after that], everything should be public. Currently, you only learn who’s been awarded the contract.
Q: Isn’t there any type of oversight now?
A: The Supreme Audit Office [NKÚ] can only control state money, not municipal money. So this office can’t review [Prague City Hall] decisions. Basically, the only body that can review decisions is the antimonopoly office [ÚOHS] or the department of the comptroller in Prague, which isn’t completely independent.
Q: The new conflict of interest law only awaits the president’s signature, and Bohemian Greenways has criticized it. What main flaws do you see?
A: Right now, if you want to see what your representative has submitted or done, you have to go to Prague to the Parliament on a Monday afternoon to have some guy show you. That means if you’re from Ostrava [North Moravia] you have to take a vacation, which is ridiculous. It hasn’t improved much, but now you can apply by mail or through an electronic signature, but you have to give them all your personal information and explain why you want to look. What are you supposed to write: ‘I want to see if my senator is a cheater’? So [the information] is available through complicated administrative procedures that discourage two-thirds of the population.
Q: Have you tried this process yourself?
A: Under the old law, we went there and asked for copies, but they wouldn’t do that so we took the whole file and made copies. We scanned it and put it on our Web site [bezkorupce.cz, in 2002]. They weren’t too happy, but we didn’t steal it; we asked them for a copy but they weren’t able to provide it, so we just made one ourselves.
Q: Who’s covered in the new conflict of interest law?
A: In the new version, it only includes people who are paid for [holding] public office. However, the majority of public offices in this country are unpaid — most council members are unpaid. The meetings of municipal commissions are closed to the public, and these people don’t have to disclose any information. They decide on rentals, public procurement — everything — behind closed doors.
Q: As a Prague 4 councilor, you aren’t required to disclose your business activities or income. Would you do it?
A: Our party [the Greens] discloses voluntarily. You can go to the Prague 4 Town Hall and find it yourself.
Q: You’ve said the new law wouldn’t meet Western standards. What else is missing?
A: Public control, easy access for the public, and citizens’ ability to propose an investigation. It needs to cover all elected public offices and include ‘close persons — a spouse, relative or someone in the same household.
In the law as it was until now, at least a wife or husband had to submit personal statements, too. But now [that requirement is] out, so it’s weaker. If [former Prime Minister Stanislav] Gross’ [apartment] scandal happened now, he wouldn’t need to explain what his wife did. His bad luck was that he went through [his problems] too early (see “The prime minister’s practical wife ,” CBW, March 7, 2005).
Q: What are some common forms of corruption you’ve seen while in office?
A: A very common trick is to set a disadvantageous rent on the lease of a municipal building, then selling the building under the market price. You go to the council [to propose selling it] and only one company is interested — the company renting it — because no one else would buy it with disadvantageous rent.
For example, in Prague 4, [the Civic Democrats, ODS, and Social Democrats, ČSSD, had] rented out a municipal villa to a company to which they later sold it instead [in 2003] for Kč 2 million [now € 70,000], while its market value was around Kč 10 million.
Q: What types of corruption are most difficult to prove?
A: Public tenders [ironically], because it all happens behind closed doors. There are unlimited opportunities to influence them. The most common trick is a pre-agreed result. Everything — including the winner — is pre-agreed. It’s difficult to prove but it happens all the time.
Q: Has it been proven?
A: Jozef Macko was the head of city investment. [In 2003] when we finally convinced the city to audit his deals through ÚOHS and a private auditor, there were dozens of bad cases. There were officials both elected and appointed who made [dozens of] errors in their work, and Macko had 206. He was privately fired before the audit was made public, but he has never been prosecuted.
Q: What mistakes did others make?
A: For example, awarding a contract to one company not based on price but on permits to build in a shorter time — but it actually took longer. So it’s clearly a pre-agreed scheme: we’ll choose you based on the term of the construction; then you’ll do it in the regular time, but we won’t fine you. Here the harm to the city was that it wasn’t done on time and the fines were decreased by 90 percent.
Q: What are the economic repercussions of corruption?
A: Conservative estimates are 10 percent, others say 20 percent, of public money is wasted through corruption. Sometimes it’s unnecessary contracts that are pre-arranged. Then you also have simple cases of bribery.
Q: How prevalent are whistleblowers in municipal government?
A: There’s no specific protection for whistleblowers. Prague refuses to investigate anonymous submissions, but there’s no protection. So it’s extremely unlikely that someone within the office will bring it up.
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