Corruption and Anticorruption in the Czech Republic

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that corruption has negative impact on economy and society. Transition process in the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) uncovered dormant possibilities for corruption that consequently required appropriate steps to be taken against. We attempted to document the state of corruption in the Czech Republic and the measures introduced to fight it. We covered sectors of society and economy according to their importance in the prevention of a corruption and a consequential hazard to the society. We also described the governmental concept of anti-corruption measures and outlined achievements and failures of such a program. The overall impression favors persistent presence of corruption within the society and economy in the Czech Republic. The state of corruption in the country, measured by the Corruption Perception Index, presents a serious problem since the index does not improve as transition process advances. Numerous comparative studies, however, suggest that corruption is more prominent feature in a number of other transition countries. We believe that the institutional framework to prevent and fight corruption appears to be improving.