After the opening conference of Program CZ 10 held on June 26, 2014 the first steps towards fulfilling the program and drawing of allocated funds were taken. Planned activities in particular topics of the predefined project were already carried out.
Within the topic “Risks and threats pertaining to corruption and related offences (esp. money laundering) in the CZ the first workshop was realized on October 2, 2014 in Prague. The workshop was entitled: „Risks and threats in the area of corruption and money laundering”. In this workshop with contribution of 25 national experts and 2 experts of Council of Europe two areas with currently the highest potential risk of corruption in the CZ were detected. These are the transparency of beneficial ownership of legal entities and related topic of registers of beneficial owners and also the issue of conflict of interests.
The results of this workshop were the basis for assignment of two complex studies within those detected risk areas. Both studies should be finalised by the end of January 2015 and will be presented on separate conference together with recommendations how to improve the situation in the CZ. The raising of public awareness about results of studies should be ensured by other planned activities of this project in 2015, for example by the preparation of complex communication strategy and its publication.
The first activity within other topic of this program “Proposal to improve whistleblowers protection” was carried out on December 8, 2014 in the Liechtenstein Palace in Prague. The workshop was entitled: “Announcement of misconduct and protection of whistleblowers”. The aim of this workshop was to obtain the information and experiences regarding whistleblowing with participation of national experts and experts of the Council of Europe. This topic was also consulted in the context of drafted concept of the most recent Council of Europe Recommendation on Whistleblowers.
The initiation of activities within two remaining topics “Proposals for improvement of criminal legislation in the area of anti-corruption and anti-money laundering” and “The improvement of the oversight and transparency of political party and election campaign financing” are planned for the first half of the year 2015.