Prague, 13th April 2016
The Financial Analytical Unit of the Ministry of Finance assessed the Project on strengthened the anti-corruption and anti-money laundering system in Czech Republic on today`s conference. This project that is funded from Norway Grants 2009-2014 is based on mutual cooperation of the Ministry of Finance with other state authorities. Participants concentrated on the contribution of the Project to raise the effectivity of fight against financial crime and also on detection of current threats in this field.
“Consequently the corruption influences the whole economy and it is also one of the cause of society demoralization. The corruption is an issue for many public and also private institutions and that is why we need to proceed strongly and coordinated against it,” stated the deputy minister of finance for taxes and duties Mrs. Alena Schillerová.
Wide scope of professionals from state service, NGOs and academics concentrated within the Project on improvement of criminal law related to fight against corruption and money laundering, on transparency of funding of election campaigns or on protection of whistleblowers in CZ. Many workshops and 8 studies has been prepared within these topics.
One of the most important study is concentrated on transparency of beneficial owners. This study was an important source of information for initiative debates according to proposal of amendment of the AML and CFT act in CZ. This proposal of amendment is currently discussed in the Parliament. One of the top expert of the Council of Europe – Mrs. Anne Myers in cooperation with Transparency International CZ and the Office of the Government prepared an analysis on possibilities of functioning of whistleblowers centre in CZ under this Project as well. This analysis served as support in discussions on legal frame of protection of whistleblowers in CZ. Within the topic of improvement of criminal law the representatives of Financial Analytical Unit and the Unit for Combating Corruption and Financial Crime got important connections to their counterparts on their foreign study visits to western European countries and they use these contacts for tighter cooperation with them and for ex-change of information and also experiences within the fight against money laundering.
“I would like to thank all participating institutions cooperating on this Project. Particulary to the Ministry of Justice, the Office of Government, the Ministry of Interior and last but not least to the Unit for Combating Corruption and Financial Crime of the CZ Police” said Mr. Libor Kazda the Head of the Financial Analytical Unit. He also added, that “I really appreciate the employees of our Unit that organized and processed this wide scope of activities.”
Kateřina Vaidišová
Department of External Relations and Communications
Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic