Description
Even almost 25 years after the fall of Communism and 10 years after entering the European Union Slovakia’s legal and institutional infrastructure protecting core democratic values is weak. Authorities in too many cases act formally as so called “empty shells” without deeper understanding and internalizing values crucial for the rule of law. Key institutions expected to oversee obeying the law aren’t independent enough. And after the last elections one political party dominates the political and public life. Such a social environment significantly increases the risk of power misuse, ineffective use of public funds and nepotism. Therefore strong and independent civil actors as balance to power are needed in order to watch over the political representation and public administration. The aim of the project is to keep and strengthen such a systematic watchdog through the Fair-play Alliance - an organization with more than 10 years’ experience in investigating concrete cases of breaking the law, creating public pressure on responsible officials, opening up data and fighting for professional state administration and judiciary. As one of core project results revealing concrete cases of power misuse and ineffective using of public money published in media is being expected. Findings will be sent to control authorities to hold responsible officials accountable. Drafts aiming at improving the legislative framework will be presented, campaigns will be organized. As Slovak judiciary still remains a big problem for the rule of law important judicial sessions will be attended and monitored. Fair-play Alliance will be an independent actor strengthening the voice of civil society voice in the public debate. It will help journalists with their investigations and offer them modern open data tools to make public control easier.
Summary of project results
The main purpose of the project was to keep and strengthen systematic and independent watchdog over public affairs as a balance to weak public institutions often standing under political pressure. Such an environment is highly prone to power misuse and therefore strong civil actors as barrier were needed. The project significantly contributed to Fair-play Alliance‘s (FAP) keep long-term role as a respected watchdog disclosing relevant cases of public money waste or power misuse and pushing for changes. It helped to provide the public with important information and to create the public pressure. To activities with the biggest impact belongs the systematic work in judiciary. FAP attended all meetings of the Judicial Council, provided the public with live on-line reporting and deeper analyses. Before the election of the Slovak Supreme Court President we involved the public and launched a campaign against re-electing the controversial judge Štefan Harabin. Longstanding public pressure helped – Harabin was voted out of his office. Our investigation had a big impact, too. FAP found out that a high-level official might have benefited from so called emission scandal – selling unused emission quotas below price to an unknown company with the seat in a US garage. We filed charges, launched a campaign and forced the General prosecutor to re-open the case. Among others, we also questioned financial statements of a company owned by the former President of the Slovak Parliament and contributed to the public pressure that forced him to resign. All together we wrote 22 blogs, published 6 articles in the media, organized 5 press conferences, launched 5 campaigns, filled 2 charges, monitored 17 JC meetings and offered a minute by minute live ticker, helped journalists in dozens of cases, modernized our open data portals, fought for better FOIA and public procurement law, organized public discussions and were independent voice in the public debate permanently quoted in the media.
Summary of bilateral results