By Mark Worth June 29, 2021 in Global Whistleblowers
The victimization of a long-serving public employee who reported evidence of corruption has solidified the Czech Republic’s reputation as one of Europe’s poorest-performing countries when it comes to whistleblower protection.
The employee was disciplined, recalled from an overseas post, threatened with dismissal, and subjected to psychological testing in retaliation for reporting suspicions of bribery. (The employee’s name and identifying information is being withheld.)
The employee, who has worked for the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs for more than 20 years, was disciplined under highly suspicious circumstances within days after reporting the alleged bribery. The reason involved a petty bureaucratic snafu and not actual wrongdoing by the employee, a review of the case by the European Center for Whistleblower Rights has found.
The employee was retaliated against in apparent violation of Czech Regulation 145/2015, which was enacted in June 2015 to comply with the OECD’s Anti-Bribery Convention. The regulation on “Whistleblowing in the Public Sector” states that “a civil servant who reports suspicion of unlawful conduct…shall not be, in relation to this activity, harmed, disadvantaged or otherwise oppressed.”
The European Center has directly alerted key members of Czech Parliament and Foreign Affairs Minister Jakub Kulhánek about the situation. A letter of protest was sent to Kulhánek this month by the European Center, based in Berlin, and the National Whistleblower Center, based in Washington, DC.
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