EY: Four out of 10 Czech businessmen asked for bribe; Czech police reveal corruption in driving licenses for Germans; No. of Czech firms with owners in tax havens up in Q3

EY: Four out of 10 Czech businessmen asked for bribe

Four out of 10 Czech entrepreneurs have been explicitly asked for a bribe and up to six out of 10 have encountered the possibility of gaining an advantage in their business in exchange for a bribe, according to a survey among contestants of the EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Reducing corruption was mentioned as one of the three main priorities that the Czech government should focus on in the forthcoming two years, which was stated by 42 percent of the polled, the survey revealed.

As for the other two priorities, as much as 56 percent of the respondents see the high public expenses as a problem that should be tended to and bad transport infrastructure is the greatest issue for 48 percent.

A decrease in the level of corruption was registered only by every fourth entrepreneur and most of them think its level is the same it was two years ago.

Thanks to the media widely covering the issue, corruption is linked mainly with the public sector and big public orders but according to businessmen, corruption is present also in companies.

The survey revealed that Czech entrepreneurs have experienced corruption in the public sector twice as frequent as on the company level, although, in the private sector the frequency is increasing.

Positively enough, in the police and judicial sectors, only 3 percent of businessmen have encountered a direct request for a bribe.

“The numbers of our survey are confirming the ongoing spreading of corruption in the CzechRepublic. Meanwhile, the substance of the problems is not just in the public sector. More than a half of big companies’ employees say their firms do not have anti-corruption rules, roughly a third of companies do not have anti-corruption seminars and a line for whistle-blowers,” EY’s managing partner Magdalena Soucek said.

Czech police reveal corruption in driving licenses for Germans

The police in the Karlovy Vary Region have revealed a group mediating driving licenses to Germans, who were stripped of them, for money, regional police spokeswoman Kateřina Böhmová told ČTK today.

The police have detained an executive of a German driving school and two court interpreters, she added.

Czech detectives from the financial crime regional police headquarters have cooperated in the case with their German counterparts for over a year.

“For a bribe of €3000, problematic German applicants for a Czech driving license passed an obligatory course and a driving training and the interpreters were giving them advice during the final test. So far we have proved 79 cases of obtaining driving licenses this way for bribes of over five million crowns in total,” Böhmová said.

She added that up to 200 driving licenses may have been issued this way. German citizens can use them on the road without any limitation.

At present, detectives are questioning the suspects and searching their houses in the CzechRepublic and Germany.

Since the beginning, Czech detectives have cooperated with the criminal police from Upper Franconia and Baden-Wuerttemberg as well as experts from the Czech Transport Ministry.

No. of Czech firms with owners in tax havens up in Q3

The number of Czech companies with owners registered in tax havens went up by 174 to 13,421 in the first three quarters of this year, with the biggest interest being in the USA, followed by Seychelles, Cyprus and the Marshall Islands, revealed data published by consulting company Bisnode today.

The said number represents 3.26 percent of the total amount of Czech enterprises and they make 15.9 percent, or Kc414.9bn, of the overall share capital, Bisnode’s analyst Petra Štěpánková said, adding that in annual comparison this is a significant growth in interest in tax havens.

Tax haven is a country with low or no taxation of foreign companies with the goal of gaining foreign capital and making the country an important financial centre.

Number of Czech companies with owners in tax havens:

Source: Bisnode