Forty-one percent of Czechs have offered bribes. Photo illustration by Cassidy Havens.

by Sonam Shah

When Christeen Rico, a 20-year-old New York University student studying in Prague, was slapped a fine of CZK 700 (about $40) by a Public Transport inspector for having an invalid metro ticket, she quickly weighed her options and took the hassle-free way out – by giving the requested bribe.

“Instead of a fine, he suggested we could solve it differently,” said Rico, who said she could not afford the fine on her student budget. “He pocketed the CZK 200 (about $11) I gave him and in turn didn’t write an official fine or give me a receipt. I was scared.”

In addition to beer and goulash, Rico discovered another Czech tradition: corruption.

Forty-one percent of local respondents surveyed by polling agency GfK openly admitted to bribing Czech officials. The polls also show that 40 percent of Czechs believe that cases of bribery cannot be cleared up.

About 65 percent of Czechs feel the Czech Republic public administration performs below average than many other EU countries in controlling corruption, according to the 2009 Czech Competitiveness Report by the American Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic.

The prevalence of corruption has been hard to quantify. It can be as small as a few bills to a Public Transit inspector or as big as the CZK 500 million (about $30 million) a local software company influenced a public tender in 2010. Charles University exam papers were allegedly sold by individuals in the law faculty for CZK 100,000 (about $5,770) per paper in 1999, and fake law degrees sold to students at the Plzeň Law School, which came to light in October of 2009. Even soccer goalie Petr Drobisz’s reportedly offered the FC Bohemia soccer team CZK 300,000 (about $17,312) in late 2009 to lose against its rival Olomouc.

The Transparency International Corruption Perception Index of 2009 placed the Czech Republic at 52nd out of 180 countries. Somalia, at 180, was ranked as the most corrupt; New Zealand, 1, the least. The Czech Republic relatively higher than some other post-communist countries including Latvia and Slovakia, both ranked at 56. However, the Czech Republic’s CPI rankings have made a bell curve in the past five years and the country is currently at a low point with its scores. In 2004, Czech Republic was ranked 51st; in 2005, it was 47th; in 2006, 46th place; in 2007, 41st place and in 2008, it fell back down to 45th.

“Corruption has been here since day one,” said Karolina Peake, deputy chairwoman of Věci Veřejné (VV), a party which campaigns on an anti-corruption platform. “Even communism was a regime based on corruption. Thankfully, this problem is now getting a lot of attention.”

Corruption was a focal point when the Czech Republic joined the European Union in 2004 along with eight other countries. In principal, EU anti-corruption guidelines are “strict and stringent,” but it doesn’t mean that money isn’t spent on “stupid” things, said Jan Kasl, a former mayor of Prague from 1998 to 2002, when he left his position because, he says, felt he was not able to fight corruption any longer.

EU members must submit to Brussels a detailed spending plan for their budget and stick to it. “You can meet the high standards of the EU and still leave room for manipulation,” said Kasl. According to him, one can easily appear to prove that money was spent for the originally declared outline with fake receipts.

Czech political parties also incorporated plans of action in their platforms for the general elections that took place last May. While their tactics and long-term visions are different, the parties largely agree that corruption is a problem.

To change the current path, some experts at Transparency International and Věci Veřejné agree that the investigation of financial institutions needs to be improved by implementing task forces. Markéta Reedová, Prague Deputy Mayor from 2006 to 2009 and a leading candidate for Věci Veřejné, believes the Czech Republic should introduce a special police branch focused on economic crime. One such group that already exists is the OECD Working Group on Bribery, an international watchdog which examines public tenders and implements guidelines to keep corruption at bay.

“At the moment the law is not working and needs to be improved,” said Reedová. “With the great media attention, we can focus on transparency and take small, efficient steps to eliminate corruption.”

Sonam Shah is majoring in economics and international business at the Stern School of Business. She studied at NYU in Prague in spring 2010.