After three years of debates the draft Act on Central Registry of Contracts, called "the most beautiful" for its clarity, is heading to its grand final. On 18 September, the Chamber of Deputies passed the draft act; but the bill will be reviewed by the Upper Chamber of the Czech Parliament, the Senate.

Currently, the Government spend around 690bn CZK per year based on various contracts. Transparency measures proposed in the dratf act by a group of Czech MPs would apply to around 500 bn CZK out of the 690 bn CZK and the rules would apply to anyone who concludes a contract with a public institution. The bill is a major improvement in transparency in the Czech Republic for the past 15-20 years, Nikola Hořejš of Rekonstrukcestatu.cz said in an interview for Radio Zet. The legislation should protect both citizens and politicians or mayors, in terms of transparency and control of public finance use, he added. Read more details here, here and here.

Read also about Slovak experience with the central registry.

Click also on infosheet by Rekonstrukcestatu.cz. Tomáš Kafka of EY explains in an interview on Radio Zet how registry of contracts could help in fight against corruption.