SITUATION BEFORE

When disposing of public finances and properties, we righteously meet with a question whether these are used most effectively and to what extent the existing rules create space for other influences, which are best described as - and most probably have translation in every language - corruption. In their power, municipalities and other institutions, which are financed from public resources, not only have decision making in public resources but also in job placement, or rent or sale of public properties they administer. Despite the fact that most countries at least set out rules for people responsible in these organizations in such decision making, it is mostly done behind closed doors. These are ideal conditions to oblige not only by a set of basic rules that the legislature defines. These are, however, optimal terms when areas not covered by legislature provide an interest to individuals or groups of people with certain interest. Along with cases, when the law has truly been broken, we far too frequently meet with stories in media that portray results of decisions when the law has actually not been violated but it is far too clear that public interest was not the priority. Public finances and assets, whose sources many a time are taxes, fees, or nonreturnable contributions and grants, are thus used inefficiently. Thus public resources, instead of being utilized in maximum for the public interest, only partially fulfill its role. It has not yet been possible to formulate the financial loss created due to an influence of corruption in government sector in real numbers. We only come across with guesses and speculations about how many percentages of public resources are, on account of corrupted behavior, lost, or how could these finances aid schools, senior citizens or those in need. The problem of corruption ails every society which is proved by the number of projects that try to manage it on local or international level. We can mention Fight against Corruption - the UN’s partnership agreement, OECD agreement on Fight against Bribery or the monitoring mechanism of European Council titled Group of States against Corruption (GRECO). The municipality’s top representatives in the town of Martin, in Slovak Republic, have decided to fight the corruption in a unique way. In cooperation with the local branch of the internationally renowned organization Transparency International, the town leaders created and launched a project titled “Transparent Town”. Its goal is to eliminate the space for corruption by making all processes, steps and town decisions “transparent”. It is done with an assistance of tools, which the municipality places in the hands of its citizens, and by encouraging the citizens to get involved and be active observers of what is going on at the town hall and thus directly act as supervisors. In a democratic society, the public decides about public issues in elections, in which it places trust in those, who carry the responsibility for actions and decisions in public sector on their behalf up until next elections. The leaders of the town of Martin have come to agreement to be under the public radar at all times. All town contracts, invoices, hiring of employees, rent and sale of town properties, grant programs, and assigning of town apartments to those in need will all be made public 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. For a few months now, the project has met with big success nationwide. Electronic auctions, which are part of the project, save the municipality one third of preliminary costs.