Prague, update your anti-corruption strategy, the council will discuss it
Councilor Hl. m of Prague for housing and transparency Adam Zábranský. Photo: MHMP
At a recent meeting, the Prague councilors discussed the draft Anti-corruption strategy of Prague for the years 2022 to 2027. The strategy is mostly devoted to the area of procurement, property management and the provision of subsidies and follows on from the anti-corruption measures introduced in this election period. It will be approved by the council on Thursday, September 8. the municipality informed about it in a press release.
According to Prague councilor Adam Zábranský (Pirates), the new anti-corruption strategy focuses mainly on the area with the greatest potential for corruption, such as awarding contracts, handling public property and providing subsidies.
In addition to measures at the city level, it also contains measures at the level of subsidized organizations, which together manage billions of crowns a year, including municipal companies, which manage tens of billions of crowns a year.
“We were inspired by the city of Québec, for example. For public contracts, we want to focus on regular reporting and data analysis, which will help uncover systemic risks in the purchasing system of the city and its support organizations. We want to make the management of Prague’s property more transparent by publishing all relevant information about city properties, including their current use and realized investments. Contribution organizations should use the Cityvizor application, following the example of Prague, so that the public can examine their management down to the level of individual invoices,” summed up the essential authority of the Anti-Corruption Strategy, Zábranský.
According to the strategy, municipal companies should publish data on awarded contracts and openly compete for sectoral contracts from the value set by law for standard contracts, i.e. two million crowns for services and six million crowns for construction works.
Newly, tenders open to members should also serve as the primary mechanism for selecting boards of directors of municipal companies.