Amcham’s Weston Stacey: Corruption concerns changed Czech political environment
Ahead of the Czech general elections, the Prague-based American Chamber of Commerce, or Amcham, came up with an initiative to curb corruption and to reform Czech public procurement legislation. The main Czech political parties welcomed the initiative and committed to implementing the proposed reform in Parliament. On Monday, with negotiations about the new government in full swing, Radio Prague spoke to Amcham’s executive director Weston Stacey, and asked him whether he thought corruption had been an important issue for Czech voters.
“I think that corruption was probably the most important election issue. What you saw as a consequence was that Czech voters no longer were looking solely at the political parties, but at individuals. You saw that the preferential votes went up; political personalities were actually more important that the parties behind them, and that means there is going to be more individual accountability of politicians.
Observers agree that two newcomers into the lower house of Parliament, the conservative TOP 09 and the populist Public Affairs, are an expression of this feeling among voters who stopped trusting the traditional parties. The Public Affairs party ran with an anti-corruption message but the party itself is somewhat mysterious because it’s not clear who’s behind it and who funds it. How do you see the party in this respect?
“We haven’t paid too much attention to who’s behind which party. But I think Věci veřejné is going to have a job to do to persuade the voters they can actually enact the rhetoric they had during the camping into reality. I think that’s going to be a challenge for all of them. People are going to be waiting to see of the traditional parties really, truly changed, or if they were just presenting the change during the election campaign and then they’ll go back to what they used to do.
“With TOP 09 and particularly Věci veřejné – as you said, that was probably the party that was running most against the traditional parties, and corruption – they are going to have to prove that they mean what they say.”
Was Public Affairs one of the political parties that some ten days before the elections signed the anti-corruption initiative that you came up with?
Have you approached them? Are you talking to them?
“Yes, we’ve requested that they sign it and they haven’t told us yes or no yet.”
Are you going to step in once it’s clear who will form the government, to follow up on these public procurement reform measures, and talk to the individual parties and MPs?
“We view the elections as an event, but not something that should make us pause the activities. It will change conditions, it will change who we talk to, but we’ve been talking to all the political parties during the campaign and we already have plans for what we are going to do.
“We are not going to wait for the government to be formed. I think the corruption issue and public procurement reform is something that does not depend on a government coalition. It depends on the individual politicians, and these politicians are now there. So we don’t have to wait for this to be government agenda. This is something that can be acted on during the summer.”
What concrete steps will you take during the summer?
Speaking of public procurement, one of the major contracts the new government will be dealing with is the completion of the Temelín nuclear power plant. Do you see that as the biggest threat when it comes to public finances and corruption?
“Let me say this: I think we’ve seen all around the world that there is a move to nuclear power because of the threat we are running out of oil and gas. Secondly, for the Czech Republic, there is the energy security issue – it needs to have some way of diversifying its energy supplies.
“I think that what the Czech government has done by choosing nuclear power is a very logical choice. And if that’s what they are going to do, then obviously they will need to have a public tender; ČEZ is a public company. And they need to make sure that the tender meets all the rules, and the decision that is made is very transparent, clear and explained to the public.
“The government should pay attention to this one because it’s big, it involves a very controversial company – whether it deserves the controversy or not – and if they don’t do this one well, then people are going to doubt whether they in fact meant what they said during the election period.”
President Václav Klaus has criticized your initiative, saying that what you’re after is not curbing corruption but rather your own profits. Why do you think he opposes your efforts, and can his can his attitude hinder the initiative?
“I don’t know why he made those comments. We haven’t had an opportunity to speak to his office about our initiative and why we are doing it. The only thing I can say is that I hope he’ll give us a chance to prove that our motivation is exactly what we say they are, instead what they presume that they are.
