Over 1mn households to receive Reconstruction of the State annual political party ratings ahead of elections as promised

By the end of September, Reconstruction of the State will release a summary evaluation of the political parties’ pledge to promote nine anticorruption bills in parliament. This evaluation will be supported also by many well-known entrepreneurs, who resent the parties’ failure to meet their commitments. This NGO platform shall evaluate all promises made since the last election campaign, when candidates for the Chamber of Deputies and political parties vehemently identified with the project. We estimate that this “Anticorruption Voter’s Guide” will reach more than one million households in the regional capitals.

“Many parties, including ODS and the ANO movement, contest local elections with promises of transparent economic management of towns and municipalities. But during the past year they failed to pass bills in parliament, which would ensure such transparency,” says Pavel Franc, head of the Frank Bold organization and guarantor of Reconstruction of the State.  “Strangely, political leaders do not feel the urge to explain why they have defaulted on their election commitments,” he notes.

“The less the public studies billboards at elections and the more it monitors real action by political parties, the more chance is there for a responsible policy. Evaluation of the enforcement of reconstruction laws is one way to assist it,” declares David Ondráčka, Platform guarantor and Director of Transparency International ČR.

“We present voters with a completely dispassionate assessment of true action undertaken by the partiers in order to meet their commitments. Citizens will also have at their disposal some hard facts and reactions of the parties, so they can see how politicians fulfil their promises,” explains Project guarantor Martin Kameník, chairman of Oživení Civic Association.

Publication of the assessment will be supported by industrialists Radim Jančura, Stanislav Bernard and other figures. The campaign has the support of many entrepreneurs and groups, the Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (AMSP), and other chambers of commerce. Reconstruction of the State enjoys a long-term support from the Otakar Motejl Foundation.

“I meet with many entrepreneurs, who are disappointed to see that politicians are working overtime just to let reconstruction bills slowly slip into oblivion. That’s why we have pooled resources to support the publication of this assessment,” says industrialist Radim Jančura.

This evaluation will be available in written form to be distributed to the press and in leaflets in the regional hubs, and an electronic version billboarded online by spots produced in concert with well-known actors. It will be downloadable from  https://pimcore.rekonstrukcestatu.cz/ on 29 September, almost immediately after a Chamber of Deputies meeting to discuss one of the reconstruction bills. The Platform estimates that it will reach about 1.4 million readers via leaflets, advertisements, emails and volunteer helpers. An evaluation sample is available now on www.rekonstrukcestatu.cz.

Political parties will receive evaluation grades separately for each bill. The numeral will be complemented by a summary of actual steps they took in favour or against each bill. The Platform’s expert groups evaluate the following criteria, monitored over a period of one year: voting at plenary sessions and in the committees of the Chamber and the Senate; filing draft amendments, and what government ministries did with these amendment drafts.

Of the nine changes promoted by Reconstruction of the State in March 2013 as urgent and realistic at the same time, applicability has been ensured only for the cancellation of bearer shares (in 2013). Earlier this year, the Lower House passed a Constitutional Amendment extending the powers of the Supreme Audit Office and, most notably, companies controlled by self-governing bodies. On Wednesday the lower house of parliament passed a civil service act which, however, meets only a third of the parameters outlined in the deputies’ pledge. Proposals for a change of the legislative process will reach the Chamber of Deputies’ plenum during September, and the government plans to put forward more bills during the year.

In September, the Reconstruction of the State Platform urged Senate election candidates to support reconstructive bills, especially a constitutional amendment on the Supreme Audit Office, which the Senate is set to block. The names of the candidates who support the amendment will be announced in the full text of the anticorruption guide and assigned a graphic symbol they can use in their publicity kits.

Additional info to be gladly provided by
Nikola Hořejš
+420 775 270 214
nikola.horejs@frankbold.org