Final Word from Tuesday, May 18, 2010
The recent poll of Final Word readers conducted by Donath-Burson-Marsteller gave respondents the chance to identify two priorities for the next Czech government. Of the 1,300 respondents, 850 chose "corruption" as one of their two prime concerns. No other topic (public finances, pensions, education, healthcare, etc.) received such a high response, yet it still means that 35% of respondents don't consider corruption to be a priority. Perhaps we should have added a question to the poll: "Are you opposed to measures by the Platform for Transparent Public Procurement and other organizations to reduce corruption?" The truth is that many opinion leaders are indeed against such efforts, whether they admit it or not. A few businesses, most notably Skanska, have spoken openly about wanting to correct their checkered past going forward, but most of the bad apples are too busy counting their ill-gotten gain.[Czech Republic American Chamber of Commerce AmCham Platforms pro transparentní veřejné zakázky]
Glossary of difficult words
prime - of first importance; main;
opinion leader - a person whose opinions particularly influence others in society;
checkered - marked by periods of varied fortune and discreditable incidents;
bad/rotten apple - a bad or corrupt person in a group, typically one whose behavior is likely to have a detrimental influence on others in the group;
ill-gotten - acquired by illegal or unfair means.