If the government were a student, it probably would not be getting any merit scholarships.
A year after helping the new government draft its official agenda following its belated formation in January 2007, Estat.cz, a civic group for increased government effectiveness, issued its annual “report card” Jan. 4, evaluating the government’s first year in power.
Graded for its efforts to slough away bureaucracy and increase transparency in the public sector, the government was given subpar marks in nearly all areas, receiving a 40 percent success rate — the equivalent of a C–.
While commending the government’s goals, most of which have yet to be realized, the Estat.cz report criticizes Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek’s Cabinet for its weak resolve.
“The current government is headed in the right direction,” says Estat.cz spokesman Jaroslav Popílek. “Unfortunately, it isn’t fast or assertive enough to push through its agenda.”
Organized into five areas including de-bureaucratization, electronic processes and administrative restructuring, the report card measures the government’s annual progress against the changes it promised to implement in its official 2007 agenda. According to Estat.cz’s report, the government is seriously lagging behind in improving transparency in the public sector, an area in which its success rate reached only 25 percent.
On its agenda, the government had promised to increase the accountability of public officials by increasing the public’s access to all nonclassified information. “The fight against corruption is one of the government’s main priorities,” the agenda states.
To crack down on ubiquitous problems such as the bribery of officials and rigged public tenders, the government promised to draft a series of laws that would “unify the methods for dispensing state funds so that they follow a single principle … effectively marginalizing corruption and the preferential treatment of certain clients.”
With stagnating plans to raise the accountability of public officials and increase the power of the Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ) and the Anti-Monopoly Office (ÚOHS), the government failed to push through a majority of these reforms.
“[It] did not raise the competency of the NKÚ or the ÚOHS,” the report states. “An initiative to draft a public service law does not exist, and … unified regulations for monitoring state expenditures have not been created.”
Although its 2007 achievements are a far cry from its original goals, the government did manage to push through several anti-corruption policies.
They include a draft amendment to the Criminal Code, which was presented by the Justice Ministry last year, and an Interior Ministry initiative to tighten the regulations of the sale of state property through a draft amendment to the law on municipalities and the law on regions.
Although they have yet to be approved by the lower house, these draft bills represent a significant breakthrough in the fight against corruption, says David Ondráčka, chairman of the local branch of global watchdog organization Transparency International.
“The sale of state property is by far the largest culprit of corrupt, nontransparent transactions,” he adds. “We see this as one of the biggest obstacles, and we commend the government for its efforts to change it.”
The government also followed through on its plans to set up 199 as an independently operated hotline allowing whistleblowers to report incidents of corruption, which is in line with its “originally ambitious anti-corruption agenda,” according to the Estat.cz report.
Aside from these provisions, however, Estat.cz is skeptical that the government will be able to push through any further reforms by the end of its electoral term in 2011.
“In the best-case scenario, the government will push through only those few changes that it introduced so far in this electoral term,” Popílek says.
‘A’ for effort
While lagging behind in public sector reforms, the government fared slightly better in its implementation of eGovernment, an initiative to speed up government services through Internet technology. In this area, Estat.cz registered an overall 50 percent success rate.
With newly launched projects such as an electronic data registry and CzechPoint, an online government portal providing citizens with access to a bevy of public documents, the government is making progress in the eGovernment initiative. According to Popílek, the Czech Republic climbed from 21st to 16th place in the European Union’s index of top eGovernment countries.
“Most of the benefits of eGovernment are not visible, but they are extremely effective in decreasing bureaucracy and speeding up the legislative process,” Ondráčka says.
Despite these developments, the government has yet to draft a successful bill on eGovernment. If passed, such a law would be instrumental in the Interior Ministry’s initiative to reorganize its communication structure.
Although the bill was twice presented for public scrutiny, it failed to win the approval of most citizens, who feared the bill would pave the way to a “Big Brother” monitoring system, according to the Estat.cz report.
“As to eGovernment, the government is taking steps in the right direction,” Popílek says. “Nevertheless, it’s necessary to push these steps through more forcefully so that their effect is visible before the end of the electoral term.”
---
2007 Report Card
How the government's promises compare with its accomplishments
De-bureaucratization
- Promised: Speed up legislation, increase transparency
- Shortcomings: Changes only cosmetic, aside from new labor law
- Grade: B– (50 percent success rate)
Electronic processes
- Promised: CzechPoint, an online government database
- Shortcomings: Draft bill on eGovernment failed to garner public approval
- Grade: B– (50 percent success rate)
Data registry
- Promised: An electronic system linking various state organs
- Shortcomings: A law is in the works, but not yet drafted
- Grade: D (25 percent success rate)
Transparency of the public sector
- Promised: Crackdown on government tenders, increased accountability of public officials
- Shortcomings: Power of watchdog offices still unclear, no bill on public sector reform
- Grade: D (25 percent success rate)
Administrative changes
- Promised: Decentralized state government, streamlined regional government
- Shortcomings: Several state organs abolished, but no further plans for decentralization presented
- Grade: B– (50 percent success rate)
Source: Estat.cz
---
Autor(en)/Author(s): Markéta Hulpachová
Quelle/Source: The Prague Post, 09.01.2008
