Data from the TI Corruption Perception Index shows that:

In 2023, Slovakia ranked 54 among 180 countries, with a score of 57 out of 100 – the lower the score, the higher the level of perceived corruption. The average global score of the TI Corruption Perception Index is indicated to be 43/100. The average regional score for Western Europe and European Union in 2022 reached 65/100.

While in the global level Slovakia scored 11 points above the average, it scored lower by 8 points for the Western Europe and the European Union region group average. The lowest performers in the region were Romania (46), Hungary (42) and Bulgaria (42), which means that Slovakia scored 12 points higher than the lowest ranking country.

The TI Corruption Perception Index is an annual measurement tool, therefore, the country’s scores and ranking can be compared with last year’s results. In 2022, Slovakia scored 53/100 and ranked 49/180. The average score for 2022 was the same, 43/100, meaning that Slovakia scored 10 points higher. The average regional score for Western Europe and the European Union was 66/100. The lowest performers in the region were also Romania (46), Hungary (43) and Bulgaria (42), which means that Slovakia scored 11 points higher than lowest ranking country.

TI CPI provides comparable data throughout the years. However, the quantitative data including the score and ranks of each of 180 countries is only complemented with a brief description in a form of an annual report. The annual report, however, does not include a detailed overview for each region or country, focusing rather on giving an overall picture of the state of perceived corruption across the globe.

The latest recommendations regarding fight against corruption were issued in 2022 by GRECO and OECD.

In January 2022, GRECO published its Fifth evaluation round compliance report on Slovakia in which it concluded that Slovakia satisfactorily implemented only two out of 21 recommendations given to the country in the Fifth Round Evaluation Report adopted in 2019. The two recommendations concerned fight against corruption within the Police Force, namely the establishment of an operational anti-corruption strategy and the establishment of a risk management mechanism in order to identify corruption risks and emerging trends within the Police Force. Three recommendations were partially implemented, which concerned for instance the training of police officers, investigators; increase of representation of women in the Police Force; or the increase of effectiveness of the protection of whistleblowers from within the Police Force. However, 16 recommendations remain unimplemented. These concern important issues, such as prevention of lobbying activities towards the government by top executive functions, or the preparation of an updated Anti-Corruption Programme. In 2023 no positive development has been made.

In March 2022, the OECD also published its Integrity Review of the Slovak Republic, including 43 concrete recommendations for strengthening of the Slovak Republic’s Anti-Corruption Policy. According to the official information included in the Anti-Corruption programme of the Office of the Government of the Slovak Republic updated 30 June 2022, the Government was cooperating with OECD experts to ensure that these recommendations would be implemented and has included a specific measure on this issue in its updated Programme. However, the majority of the recommendations remain unimplemented. The Anti-Corruption programme was again updated as of 30 June 2023. No significant development has been made. Moreover, based on the Evaluation of the previous updated Anti-Corruption programme, many measures were postponed or even abolished as the government considered them to be ineffective.

In December 2023, The government introduced an amendment to the criminal law system thought accelerated legislative procedure intending to amend substantive as well as procedural law. The most notable changes include:

• lowering the penal rates for property and economic crimes;
• reducing the penal rates for crimes committed by public officials;
• the abolishment of the Special Prosecutor’s Office of the Slovak Republic;
• changes to the legal position of the cooperating person and the suspect.

Anti-corruption strategy

The crucial policy at the governmental level is the Slovak Anti-Corruption Policy for 2019-2023. Implementation of the policy is supported by the National Anti-Corruption Programme, and other central authorities and sectoral ministerial programmes. According to the OECD the regulation itself fulfils the OECD standards by 53%, hoverer implementation reaches only 37%.

The OECD average for regulation is 45% and for the implementation is 36%.

Corruption risk management and audit

The role of central harmonisation unit in Slovakia is given to the Ministry of Finance that promotes methodologies for internal control and audit based on international standards. Internal control activities are not reported to the Ministry of Finance, but they are made publicly available and shared with the Committee for Internal Audit and Government Audit, where the supreme audit institution (Supreme Audit Office) is also present. According to the OECD, the regulation itself fulfils the OECD criteria by 84%, while implementation reaches 47%. The OECD average for regulation is 67% and for the implementation is 33%.

Lobbying

The absence of legal act regulating lobbying activities is a persisting challenge regularly reported in the annual Rule of Law Report by the European Commission. Thus in the area of lobbing regulation, Slovakia fulfils the OECD criteria by 0%. OECD states that there is no entity in charge of monitoring lobbying activities in the Slovak Republic, nor a law regulating lobbying activities, nor examples of at-risk behaviour in existing codes of ethics or conduct. Regarding the implementation the criteria in practice, Slovakia reaches 25 %. The OECD average for regulation is 38% and for the implementation is 35%.

Conflict of interest

The regulation at the national level covers:

• limited cooling-off period for public officials who provided state aid or other benefit to third persons;
  • mandatory submission of interest declarations for elected officials, members of the judiciary and senior civil servants;
  • and the obligation to manage potential conflict-of-interest situations.

The compliance with conflict-of-interest regulations and sanctions for public officials for breaching the obligations are supervised by the parliamentary committee on incompatibility of functions.

OECD alerts that cooling-off restrictions for former public officials do not apply to lobbying activities, and no data was provided on whether elected officials, members of the judiciary or senior civil servants comply with the regulations on submission of interest declarations. Therefore, the regulation itself fulfils the OECD criteria by 78%, while implementation reaches only 22%. The OECD average for regulation is 76% and for the implementation is 40%.

Political financing

In the Slovak Republic, anonymous donations are banned as well as contributions from foreign states and enterprises and state-owned enterprises. Regulations also lays obligations to submit annual and electoral financial reports. Even though parties comply with the regulations on submission of financial reports, these are not all publicly available. Supervision over the regulation is done by the State Commission for Elections and Control of Political Party Financing. According to the OECD this body cannot be considered as an autonomous body as it depends on the Ministry of the Interior for its budget and hiring decisions. According to the OECD, the regulation itself fulfils the OECD standards by 70%, hoverer implementation reaches only 29%. The OECD average for regulation is 73% and for the implementation is 58%.

Transparency of public information

Most responsibilities for the open data policy are shared between the Ministry of Investment, Regional Development and Informatisation for supervision of public access to data, and the Ministry of Justice for compliance with the Act on Access to Information. However, there is no an autonomous central body that would supervise collecting and publishing data on access to information requests. Disclosure of the information is regulated by the Act No. 211/2000 Coll. on free access to information. Every state body is responsible for the implementation of the Act within their scope of jurisdiction. According to the OECD, the regulation itself fulfils the OECD criteria by 78% and implementation reaches 58%. The OECD average for regulation is 67% and for the implementation is 62%.

The amendment to the criminal law system introduced by the Slovak government thought accelerated legislative procedure in December 2023 amends the criminal procedural law resulting the abolishment of the Special Prosecutor’s Office of the Slovak Republic.

The Special Prosecutor’s Office prosecuted persons suspected of committing crimes and falling under the jurisdiction of the Specialized Criminal Court, including the most serious corruption offences.

According to the letter by the European Chief Prosecutor addressed to the European Commission in December 2023, the proposed amendments constitute a serious risk of breaching the rule of law by:

• minimizing detection of potential fraud affecting the financial interests of the EU;
• disrupting functional reporting lines established between the European Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Special Prosecution Service;
• cutting the EPPO from the specialized investigators of the National Criminal Agency, without adequate replacement;
• rerouting most of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office cases from the Specialized Penal Court to lower courts, with little expertise in crimes under the competence of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office;
• and constituting a de facto amnesty in a substantial number of active investigations into fraud affecting the financial interests of the EU in the Slovak Republic.

Moreover, such significant change is being done through an accelerated legislative procedure and raising concerns as to its compliance with obligation laid down in Article 4(3) TEU that includes a mutual legal obligation for the EU and its Member States to assist each other in carrying out the tasks stemming from the Treaties.