Party financing loophole for corruption

In the wake of an endless series of corruption scandals, "the Czech Republic has been reprimanded for a lack of transparency in political party financing," reports Hospodářské noviny. According to a report from GRECO, the Group of States Against Corruption, "if the country wants to make progress in the fight against corruption, politicians will have to publish more information about the financing of their parties,” explains the Prague daily. GRECO, which is the Council of Europe’s anti-corruption monitoring body, points out that “using various intermediaries, political parties are sourcing funds from state-owned companies and spending more on elections than official declarations would imply — a situation that has been rubber stamped by the national body for corruption control, which is a parliamentary committee staffed by politicians.” In the light of news that “the fight against corruption will be one of the priorities for the newly appointed American ambassador in Prague Norman Eisen,”Hospodarské Novinynotes "that the analysts in Strasbourg are not the only ones to have doubts".