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Description
EU funding programmes for the mitigation of the causes of the climate change and adaptation to their economic and social impacts worth of hundreds of billions are currently being introduced in the Czech Republic without having the anticorruption robustness of the governmental measures, that imply them, secured. TI CZ thus launches the anticorruption watchdog PROKLIMA as a follow-up to it’s own methodical approach to the problems of „carbon corruption“, which has become one the organization’s current priorities. In the inter-disciplinary cooperation with other NGOs, TI will arrange the risk assessment of the carbon corruption within respective measures and projects, National Recovery & Resilience Plan, Territorial Just Transition Plan etc. and ensure the awareness of both expert and journalistic community while using the law for free access to information (106/1999coll.). We will organize roundtables, expert colloquiums and most of all push for the introduction of the precaution mechanisms directly into the implementation structure of the programmes, doing so in the dialogue with the authorities (Comittee of the National Recovery & Resilience Plan, Continuous Regional Conferences for Territorial Just Transition). We will act as advocacy agents at platforms for the participation of public on the decision making processes regarding the given programmes (for example Platform for the Modernisation Fund). This engagement will therefore provide much needed methods for the evaluation of the anticorruption robustness of the programmes and projects for the authorities themselves. Not only experts and journalists, but general public will have the opportunity to follow the process of green transition in the right context.
Summary of project results
The Czech Republic has launched major programmes aimed at economic, social and economic responses to climate change. EU funds are among the most important sources of finance to support mitigation and adaptation.
Although these are programmes of paramount importance, from an environmental, social and economic point of view, and although the budgets total up to CZK 500 billion, their implementation has been carried out with minimal media coverage, without wider social debate and in the absence of mechanisms to protect the funds from the risk of corrupt abuse. The non-transparency of the processes of preparing these plans has been the subject of justified criticism by watchdog organisations. The project has therefore responded to the need to oversee the process of approving and distributing funds under these plans in order to reduce the corruption risks involved.
The funds are now more transparent, the people in charge know about us and cooperate, provide information, treat us as professional partners on an equal footing, and comply with transparency requirements. In procedures where the authorities plan to involve civil society in the dialogue (a partial success), this involvement is no longer just formal, but the dialogue is actually conducted. The authorities communicate, inform and involve civil society more than before.
The main outcome of the project in relation to the project target groups is the involvement of NGOs in the decision-making processes of state actors in the field of green funds. Civil society has managed to raise the visibility of this issue and has been able to gain oversight of the system through the establishment and operation of the Transparency Sub-Committee. Through this, NGOs have gained access to key actors and established long-term and meaningful collaboration with them.