Governance in V4 countries: the Czech Republic and Slovakia Petr Witz 2016

Basic determinants Frequently interrupted administrative tradition Experience with totalitarian regime Velvet revolution Country split-up EU membership

Main challenges for governance at national/local level existence of old elites and monopolistic power structures – cronysim, nepotism and clientelism frequent changes in regulation and government policies culture of non-disclosure of data limited role of Supreme audit office non-transparent financing of political parties insufficient and corrupt state support system for allocation of EU funds – high transaction costs and low effectiveness lack of experts in the civil service and even more so at local level – low attractiveness of positions

Reconstruction of the State alliance of the most prolific and most active anticorruption NGOs in the Czech Republic combined pressure on politicians to support 9 key anticorruption laws new tactics – forcing politicians to make written pledges that are then constantly reviewed powerful sponsors agressive campaign in media

Good governance initiatives Several initiatives „from above“ and „from below“: Freedom of information – from below Registries of public contracts – from below Electronic evidence of sales – from above Financial disclosure acts – both ways Reform of the role of the Supreme audit office – both ways Civil service reforms – from below Reform of administrative divisions - from above Participative budgeting – Democracy 2.1 – from below

Electronic evidence of sales project of the ministry of finance aimed at increasing effectiveness of tax collection – more money for transfers to local administrations all sales to be reported on-line and automatically to tax authorities high costs to businesses

Financial disclosure act new obligation for individuals to prove legality of their possesions not just for politicians but for everyone retroactivity possesions that are not justified can be confiscated

Civil service reform example of failed effort the original intention to depoliticize public administration and protect it from external influences in reality the new government abused the new law to get its political nominees to civil service and lock the in their positions for many years to come

Reform of the role of the Supreme Audit Office reform aimed at bringing local administrations under the jurisdiction of Supreme audit office until now the

Reform of the administrative division – „kraj“ vs „okres“

Participative decision making&budgeting – Democracy 2.1 system created by the company of the Czech billionaire Janeček enhancing democratic decision making by giving people more than one vote and making the vote very simple and transparent allowing both “plus-votes” and “minus-votes” used by local authorities all over the world notable examples: New York City Council https://vote.d21.me/vote/NkYY9qpM-/quick

Open contracts project of Slovak Fair Play Alliance and TI Slovakia accumulated database of contracts of total value over 91 bn euros classification and visualiastion of all government departments‘, agencies‘ and local authorities‘ contracts allows for comments and evaluation by citizens Costs: 30000-40000 euros capex and tens of euros per year for website maintenance Staff: Just one member of staff part-time responsible for regular updates and research

Otvorená samospráva TIS project focussed on local government TIS employees put together rankings of the 100 biggest Slovak local authorities based on relatively complex weighted indicators from several different areas. evaluates the overall performance of local government authorities concerning openness and transparency of their actions on the one hand and the quality of provided information on the other the areas are assigned weight according to their perceived influence on transparency and good governance on the local level Costs: up to 10000 euros capex Staff: Quarterly checks, otherwise none

Otvorená samospráva Assigned weight: Access to information 21 Citizens’ participation 14.5 Public procurement 12 Assets management (sales and rents) 9.5 Budget 12 Grants and subsidies 7 Housing and social housing 6.5 Human resources management 4.5 Ethics 6 Spatial planning and land use 3 Gen. loc. government ventures and investments 4