Czech MPS expenses under scrutiny after British scandal

The British scandal over MPs imaginative expense payments has focused attention on how Czech lawmakers are compensated and their accounts controlled. The comparison shows many similarities between the two systems with similar abuse difficult to rule out.

The British scandal erupted after a newspaper blew the whistle on MPS’ extravagant expense claims for everything from moat clearing to horse manure and antique rugs. A lot of metaphoric manure has stuck with the speaker of the house forced to resign and wide ranging reforms promised. In the Czech Republic, comparisons are only starting to be drawn between the very similar pay and allowances systems for lawmakers in both countries and their, apparently, wide room for abuse.

Czech MPS have a basic wage of just over 60,000 crowns or around 2,250 dollars. Normal allowances for travel and top up payments for being on committees can take this to around 100,000 with a series of extra allowances for expert assistance, offices, lodging etc easily totalling another 100,000. One Civic Democrat senator has come up with the idea of a lump sum payment that would add up to 270,000 crowns a month – about the Czech average pay for a whole year.

The Czech newspaper Právo reported on Wednesday how one of the Czech allowances – 14,300 crowns a month for expert studies – could be easily abused with no clear checks on how the cash is spent. The lower house of parliament confirmed that it is up to MPs themselves whether they publish details of their claims and payments and that individual scrutiny of the details is not usual.

British-based Czech studies lecturer Jan Čulík has an insight into both British and Czech systems. He says more openness is clearly required.

“There obviously has to be more transparency. The message from the British scandal is that actually people will do anything if they can expect that everything will be happening in the darkness kind of without public accountability”

But while drawing similarities between British and Czech allowance systems, Mr Čulík doubts whether a similar scandal would be blown open by crusading Czech journalists in the way it was in Britain.

“I just can not envisage a Czech journalist or a of newspaper editor or owner designating a team of journalists, giving them their salaries and saying ‘Okay, now you go and have a look at Czech MPs and how they are possibly abusing their expenses.’”

Britain’s House of Commons has now called for all MPs’ expense claims to be published on the Internet. But Mr Čulík says he is still waiting in vain for such a call to be made in the Czech Republic.