Data: Lawmakers Want Stricter NGO Oversight, Yet They Don't Even Follow Current Laws

Specifically, we found fifty-five non-profit organizations that have one of the one hundred eight coalition lawmakers directly in leadership. Membership itself is not tracked and therefore cannot be quantified, so we focus exclusively on organization leadership. Even from this data, the quite rich associational life of our legislators is apparent.

Current laws clearly state that every non-profit organization (association, institute, etc.) must publish basic accounting documents in the Collection of Documents every year. Last year, only nineteen of the mentioned fifty-five organizations fulfilled this obligation. Thirty-two did not. Four NGOs were newly established and therefore had nothing to publish yet.

Lawmakers for Motorists to Themselves are doing worst. In total, they lead eight associations - and not one of them fulfills the legal obligation. (The exception here is only one new association that does not yet have a legal obligation to publish accounting documents.)

Minister of Foreign Affairs and party chairman Petr Macinka chairs the Motorists Club and is secretary of the board of the Center for Terrorism Research. Both associations violate the law – they have never submitted accounting documents to the Collection of Documents.

Moreover, the Motorists Club donated 800 thousand crowns to the Motorists to Themselves party in 2024 - whose chairman is again Macinka. Where did that money come from and what portion of the association's budget did they donate? Due to the absence of mandatory documents, this cannot be determined.

Lawmaker Filip Turek leads two associations with similarly ostentatious names - Jaguar Club of the Czech Republic and Aston Martin Club of the Czech Republic. Neither publishes financial documents.

Same situation with Gabriela Sedláčková (PLURALIS association), Renata Vesecká (Czech-Chinese Literary Publication Exchange Centre) and Matěj Gregor (Exit association), who collects money for Czechia's exit from the European Union, although he simultaneously declares that he does not wish for this exit.

The paradox is obvious: lawmakers who want to legislatively force NGOs to greater transparency themselves ignore the law that already requires basic transparency today. Meanwhile, large professional NGOs - People in Need, ADRA, Doctors Without Borders, charities - publish financial information beyond legal requirements. The new law would therefore add obligations to organizations that already voluntarily fulfill them, while those led by government lawmakers themselves ignore the law.

The situation is also illustrated by Foreign Minister Macinka's statement, who declared that non-profit organizations started "shouting loudly" when the government came with a requirement to disclose financing. A minister leading two associations that never submitted legal documents about their finances comments on the insufficient transparency of others.

It should also be added that the government wants to achieve with the new law what should already exist today. The Ministry of Finance maintains a Subsidy Register at the state level. Other levels (regions, EU) are added by an NGO: State Watch has long been making public subsidies transparent.

As we already mentioned, party chairman and minister Petr Macinka leads two NGOs - Motorists Club and Center for Terrorism Research, which never submitted legal documents about their finances.

We devoted detailed attention to two NGOs led by lawmaker Filip Turek in the article MEP Turek: President of Two Associations, One Has 3 Members, the Other Doesn't Function. Lawmaker Turek's NGOs also don't publish mandatory financial documents.

The Exit association under Matěj Gregor's leadership promotes Czech Republic's withdrawal from the EU and has collected hundreds of thousands of crowns in its transparent account since its inception. Gregor himself admits that the association doesn't actually function today - but claims he won't abandon it and wants to make it a "cross-party platform" for Euroskeptic topics. Gregor himself paradoxically does not wish for Czech Republic's exit from the EU. Again, this is an association that, contrary to law, doesn't publish its financial documents.

What activity the Czech-Chinese Literary Publication Exchange Centre under lawmaker Renata Vesecká's leadership actually conducts cannot be publicly determined - the association has no website, no media reports on it in any way. Since its founding in 2017, the association has not published any financial documents.

The Pluralis association, where Gabriela Sedláčková is vice-chair, promotes conservative ideology for the LGBT+ community. But it also doesn't publish its financial documents.

From SPD, lawmaker Miroslav Ševčík deserves attention, chairman of the J. Odložil Memorial association. This NGO, together with Ševčík's company of the same name, organizes one of the largest athletic meets in Czechia and has received subsidies of almost 10 million crowns in recent years from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and from the state National Sports Agency. The company of the same name received 20 million in subsidies.

The NGO Young Libertarians - according to its description a youth organization of the Libertarian political party - has David Lavička listed as chairman on its website, but official documents say otherwise: The chairman of this NGO is the Libertarian political party itself represented by its party chairman - SPD lawmaker Libor Vondráček.

Paradoxically, this "youth NGO" was founded by only two people, besides Libor Vondráček (who was 30 years old at the time of founding) it was the then 54-year-old Tomáš Macek. The mandatory third founder was the Libertarian political party represented again by Libor Vondráček. And they have it even more complicated with members of categories A, B and C. In any case, even with this complicated structure they did not ensure compliance with the law, they have not yet published financial statements.

A special case is the Doctors Against Wars association – it has two government lawmakers in leadership, Ivana Mádlová and Věra Adámková (both ANO). This association also doesn't fulfill legal obligations. Doctor Věra Adámková additionally leads two other associations, the Světice Hunting Association and the Healthy Heart Foundation, both also without mandatory financial documents.

Lawmakers Marek Novák and Denis Doksanský lead the most NGOs - both four organizations.

Marek Novák, besides two football associations, also leads the Czech-Tunisian Chamber of Commerce for Mutual Cooperation and the Czech-Austrian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. But neither has published mandatory financial documents.

Lawmaker Denis Doksanský leads NGOs connected with Sion schools (Sion High School) - the Sion association (school operator), Sion Christian Center, Sion - New Generation association and sports club FBC Sion - Hradec Lions. They rather publish financial documents, but most are missing for the last year 2024.

Among other associations led by ANO lawmakers we find, for example, the Czech Hemp Cluster, led by Václav Trojan, a research worker specializing in medical cannabis. This association publicly engages in cannabis legislation. The association publishes documents, only the last year 2024 is missing.

Martin Kolovratník, chairman of the parliamentary electoral committee, leads the Association for Transport Development, whose website records dozens of trips and lobbying meetings with companies from the transport sector. They published documents, but year 2024 is again missing.