This document summarizes information about an NGO in the Czech Republic called Naši politici o.s. (Our Politicians). The NGO was established in 2008 with the goal of providing independent and undistorted information about public administration to citizens. It focuses on analyzing links between politicians, lobbyists, and financial flows within public institutions. It also aims to increase transparency around use of public funds and EU structural funds. The NGO operates several websites including nasipolitici.cz, budovanistatu.cz, and fondyeu.eu to aggregate and analyze open data on politicians, public procurements, and EU funds recipients.

1. NAŠI POLITICI O.S.
– new media watchdog
Jiří Fiala – Naši politici o.s.
Prague
February 2014

2. The economist: Czech politics- State
capture...

3. NEW MEDIA - WATCHDOG NGO

4. 2008
NASIPOLITICI.CZ

5. Our missions and objectives…
„The aim of the civic association, Naši politici o. s., is to create an independent
source of information to provide public with relevant undistorted information on
public administration - state and local governments.“In this regard, we focus on:
1.
2.
3.
persons who hold an elected mandate / function and / or have a major impact on
the formation and execution of public administration in the Czech Republic. The basic
objective is to be achieved through the establishment and operation of an internet portal
www.nasipolitici.cz.
analytical work on exploring the links between politicians, lobbyists and financial
flows within public institutions - exploring potentially non-standard processes within
public procurements and subsidies from the EU funds and other issues related to the
transparency of the public administration.
Usage of the informational potential of publicly available data to create an open data
network aggregating those available data into a new information quality. Use of
data and analytical outputs, in cooperation with partner watchdog organizations and
investigative journalists for self-analytical, investigative and advocacy work. In this
respect our association operates internet portals www.budovanistatu.cz and
www.fondyeu.eu.

6. STRUCTURED PROFILES OF POLITICIANS AND
LOBBYISTS

7. Virtual election 2010 – preferential voting

8. Presidential election 2013 – networking of NGO‘s

9. Google Add Words – PPC promotion granted

10. EU Structural Funds – 48 billion EUR for the
Czech Republic (2007 – 2020)

11. Where is the mistake?
1.
Risk Analysis 2006 - poorly implemented ...
2.
The strong influence of politicians on administration of Operational Programs
3.
Dysfunctional control from Leading Authorities/Audit Authorities
4.
Methodological inconsistency of Operational Programs
5.
Significant administrative burden vs. low effectiveness / usefulness
6.
Missing authority that would interpret the correct procedure (The Office for the
Protection of Competition x The European Court of Auditors x Ministry of Finance x
Tax Offices)
7.
Lack of transparency and open sources of information
8.
1 billion EUR reported to European Anti-Fraud Office
probable corrections

12. From the CZ Police Interception: „I will tell Lucie that this subject will
win the tender and others will be a facade. Give me the project, I will
adjust the tender.“ (K.Pancová)

The Reconstruction of the
Bustehrad castle should have cost
181 million CZK - about 20 million
CZK should have been allocated
for bribes.
„The Council composed of regional politicians did not provide for single project financed
by one of the priority axes of Regional Operational Programm - Central Bohemia a real
control over the project. The fact that the Regional Council - Central Bohemia yet hasn’t
done these checks causes a risk that the term of sustainability will elapse without the
accomplishment.“ (The official statement, The National Audit Office, 2012)

13. Solution - reduce risk and increase efficiency 2014 - 2020

„The goal is not a perfection, but a change for
the better “ (TI - M. Fantová 2007)
 Effective control and repression
 Legislation changes (The Reconstruction of the
State Project)
 Prevention
• Simplifying the distribution structure
• Greater methodological unity
• Effective management of corruption risks
• Transparency and open information - "open
data"

14. By connecting various public information sources can
be created a new information quality
•
A List of Operational Programm Beneficiaries
– Ministry of Regional Development.
•
A Procurement Database Vsechnyzakazky.cz.
•
Visualization of the economic relations – data
from the Czech Business Register
Podnikani.cz.
•
Structured profiles of politicians and
Lobbyists - Nasipolitici.cz.
•
Czech Statistical Office
•
Commercial database CreditCheck

15. „Hard data“ – essential basis for analytical work
Information documents from different public
sources serve as basic data for the analysis
and investigation

16. Fondyeu.eu

17. Fondyeu.eu - a project summary
The main objective of the Fondyeu.eu project is to increase the
transparency of information on the beneficiaries and the projects that
received financial support from the EU Structural Funds.
The project allows easy searching and linking of detailed information
relating to the individual recipients of grants from the EU, with the
associated procurement, visualized economic and personal relationships
and connections with persons involved in the political sphere.
With the Internet application www.fondyeu.eu you can, for the first time,
simply search for connections between the beneficiaries of subsidies,
public procurements and politicians identified in connection with the grant
recipient.

18. Fondyeu.eu – an information on grant recipient

19. Fondyeu.eu –10 largest subsidies for
accommodation entities

20. Controversial Practice Examples
- anonymous shares / offshore
1)
President Securities a.s.– anonymous shares,
controlled by ODS regional election manager, it is
not clear who actually carries out the project.
Director of Regional Operational Project
Northwest P. Markvart – Chomutov mayor
candidate (ODS)
2)
Armaturka Krnov, a.s. – 6 grants from EU with the
total allocated amount of 66 million CZK, business
relations with State Owned Enterprises, Cyprus
offshore owner – until July 2013 was involved
minister František Koníček (Ministry of Labour and
Social Affairs)

21. Fondyeu.eu – future development of the application

22. Fondyeu.eu - Publicly beneficial applications of the year 2013
1.
Awarded as the best Public Servise
Application of the year 2013 in the Czech
Republic.
2.
"The application compared to the official
website of the Ministry for Regional
Development (MMR) is not only more friendly,
but also informationally richer. Linking MMR
data from the Czech Statistical Office and Nasi
politici project database is creating an elegant
webs of grant recipients’ relationships with
other entities and clearly shows the Who,
Where and With Whom.“
Jiří Táborský (Czechposition.cz, 30.11.2013)

23. Politicians and public expenditures – investments into our future is
necessary to watch ...
„we will build a great
things together“

24. Projects are supported…

25. Thank you
Jiří Fiala
fiala@nasipolitici.cz