Data - Integrity Pacts – Civil Control Mechanism for Safeguarding EU Funds

The Czech Republic is set to receive €24.2 billion in EU funding between 2014-2020 but audits carried out by both the Czech national Audit Authority and the European Commission have repeatedly uncovered large-scale challenges in the management of EU funds. In 2012, such discoveries led to payments interruptions for all EU-funded Operational Programmes in the Czech Republic.

As a result, the Ministry for Regional Development came up with a plan and introduced MS2014+, a unified monitoring system for the administration of European subsidies. The online platform aims to bring transparency in the allocation of EU funds for 2014-2020 and provide more clarity of information for applicants and beneficiaries.

MS2014+ has significantly simplified much of the management and distribution of EU funds in the Czech Republic. At the same time, it has been a big undertaking and not without its challenges. Now the system has been improved so that it is functional, stable, reliable, and meets user requirements. 

Although highly technical, the project has an impact on all EU-funded investments in the Czech Republic – meaning that the roads, schools and hospitals built using EU funds all rely on it. Given the importance of this investment, Transparency International Czech Republic has monitored the tendered work through an Integrity Pact.