Non-profit organization Oživení issued a publication MORE THAN PUBLIC PROCUREMENT ACT: economy, transparency and accountability in public purchases. The study addresses the situation of public procurement in the Czech Republic, in particular in connection with economically irresponsible behaviour and corruption. The ambition of this study is to provide an objective description of this unsatisfactory state while also offering some possible starting points toward steering it in the right direction. You can download the publication in English here. There is also a Czech version available here. 

AmCham Labour Code&Social Affairs Committee met on 3 October to discuss upcoming plans and activities. The minutes of the meeting you can find attached (available under username and password). Next activity planned is a presentation of Petr Bezouška about the new Labour code. For the next 2 years in positions of chairman and vicechairwoman stay Ladislav Smejkal and Milena Jabůrková. Next meeting of LCSAC will take place at the beginning of December at AmCham offices.

On 21 September, the Government published an official wording of the Act on Lobbying. In fact, by approving the Act, the Czech Republic would enact a regulatory approach to lobbying activities as such. The Act defines the process of lobbying as influencing public officials with decisive rights. It stipulates a list of the public officials that should be treated under the Act regarding lobbying activities. Except for deputies and senators, other high state, regional and local officials and representative are included (the list varies from 2,000 to 80,000 officials according to different variants of the Act).  The Government welcomes any consultation in the internal comment procedure till 22 October. 

Six months after it became effective, the amendment to the Act on Public Contracts has been evaluated positively by six out of ten companies. Despite that fact, companies do not believe that it addresses all corruption risks. The amendment to the Act on Public Contracts, which has been effective since 1 April this year, contributes to greater transparency and limits opportunities for corruption in the Czech Republic. This is the opinion of 59.1% of Czech companies. However, the majority of companies (54.5%) believe that the amendment does not address all risks of possible manipulation and only a small portion of companies (4.6%) agree with it without reservation. These are the results of the latest survey carried out by the Ambruz & Dark/Deloitte Legal cooperating law offices, which monitored the opinions of Czech firms on this issue six months after the amendment became effective. The survey you can find attached (Czech&English version).

Government´s discussion on 19 September on Act on public control over financial management of political parties and political movements by Ministry of Interior was interrupted. This Act is a part of the good governance (anticorruption) system. The new Act has 2 parts: 1st dealing with the Office for the Supervision of the management of political parties. 2nd dealing with Amendment of the original Act. The full text on new Act you can find attached.