home about us contact us jobs at TI sitemap faq Chapter Zone search
news room global priorities regional pages policy and research tools publications support us
home > publications > newsletter > 2008 > February 2008 > anti-corruption... > Anti-corruption hotline
publications
 






By Georg Neumann

The Legal Advice Centre run by Transparency International Czech Republic (TIC) has dealt with around 1000 cases of alleged corruption since October 2006. The free national anti-corruption hotline 199, enables citizens to report cases and complaints about alleged corruption to the centre.

The majority of complaints concern the work of the Czech courts, the alleged manipulation of public and state property, public contracting, and possible corruption in the private sector. Many complaints centre on land planning and construction proceedings, where local and regional representatives and civil servants are allegedly under pressure from construction and development companies. This is apparently very evident in municipalities where the decisions made by local authorities are generally not supervised.

The law on free access to information is key to dealing with the cases. However, according to TIC director David Ondracka, the law is problematic since it does not set any fine for officers or companies that refuse to provide information. More information can be found at: http://www.transparency.cz/index.php?lan=uk&id=2804.