Social Watch criticises Czech gov't cuts, tax evasion, corruption

Prague, Aug 14 (CTK) - The situation of people in the Czech Republic worsened last year, the Social Watch international network says in its annual report criticising the government's budget cuts and their impact on families and the national economy, which the Czech Social Watch branch presented Tuesday.

The report also points to corruption in Czech politics, tax evasion, lacking measures in support of equal opportunities and limited measures of environment protection.

This is the Social Watch's fifth annual report assessing developments in the Czech Republic.

"Unfortunately, the situation has not improved in most of the monitored categories in the past five years. A big problem is the economic situation that has been deteriorating due to incompetent steps taken by the government and due to the advisers who give good advice to it," Tomas Tozicka, one of the authors of the report, said.

He said the state's communication with citizens has also deteriorated, as a result of which their participation in managing public affairs has declined.

The government's austerity measures have had a negative impact on the Czech economy, the report says, adding that the increase in VAT and welfare cuts afflicted the lowest-income groups.

The state loses annually up to 100 billion crowns due to corruption in politics and state administration, says the report.

It points to huge tax evasion that strips the economy of tens of billions of crowns.

Topics such as equal opportunities for men and women continued to be marginalised last year. The Czech Republic is short of kindergartens. Part-time employment and other types of flexible work fail to be introduced. No measures have been taken to enhance women's representation in politics and decision making, said another of the report's authors, Marcela Adamusova.

Her colleague Milan Stefanec said the abolition of the Environment Ministry has been spoken of. The ministry dismissed tens of experts last year. The public's chance of participating in the decision making in construction and related nature protection has been gradually limited, Stefanec said.

Social Watch is an international network established in 1995 with the aim to independently monitor the observance of the commitments the countries approved at U.N. conferences on poverty and on women. It is an umbrella network associating some 700 organisations and institutions from about 70 countries.

The Czech Social Watch coalition comprises the Ecumenical Academy Prague, Gender Studies, Forum 50%, Masaryk's Democratic Academy, the Nesehnuti movement, Trust for Economy and Eurosolar.