Final Word from Monday, January 30, 2012
ČSSD will apparently join with the coalition this week to pass the original versionof the new public-procurement law. A Senate version that added the requirement todisclose the owners of suppliers has been widely criticized as being chaotic (exceptby the Endowment against Corruption). Justice Minister Jiří Pospíšil has promised toinclude these requirements in a separate law on company ownership, which could bepassed by June. Pospíšil is under pressure from elements in his own party becauseof his effort to clean out the Prague prosecutor's office. At the same time, Vice PMKarolína Peake of VV is encroaching on his territory with her new commission on reformof the judiciary and the police. Passage of the procurement and company-ownershipbills would give Pospíšil a big media victory. The laws themselves won't eliminatecorruption, but they'll make the thievery more difficult and more expensive.
Glossary of difficult words
procurement - the act of obtaining or purchasing something;
home stretch - the last part of a journey, race, project, etc.;
to encroach on/upon - to intrude on a person's territory or a thing considered to be a right.