By Emília Si?áková-Beblavá
The new Slovak government, formed in June 2010, has declared since its formation that the fight against corruption to be its priority.
This issue can be found among the first points of the Government Declaration of the Slovak Republic. The government pronounced effective use of public finances and the fight against corruption to be the key elements in their effort to stop the rising debt and gradually decrease the deficit of the public finances.
Only a few weeks after the elections took place, the Prime Minister, Iveta Radi?ová, together with the new Minister of Justice, Lucia Žit?anská, proposed an amendment of both the Civil Code and the Act on Free Access to Information. The important provisions of this amendment deal with an obligation to publish all state-signed contracts. This obligation applies not only to contracts involving the disposal of public and state finances or assets, but also the finances and assets of the European Union spent in Slovakia.
According to provisions of this draft legislation, all state financed bodies, as well as local authorities, would be obliged to publish all the contracts for purchase or sale on the internet. Furthermore, such a contract would be valid only after it has been published for ten days, and the contract could be cancelled within this period as well.
This draft legislation also orders the state bodies to publish all the invoices, no matter their value, on the website of the respective state authorities.
(Emília Si?áková-Beblavá works for TI Slovakia)
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