After a series of corruption scandals implicating top politicians, Austria is moving to reform its anti-graft legislation, which is deemed too lax by many.
Reporting rules on political party donations and lawmakers’ incomes will be toughened in a bill in May that is expected to become law before the summer – high time, according to many observers.
“We have a party financing law that required no transparency, and which allowed no checks and envisioned no sanctions,” said the former chief of the court of auditors, Franz Fiedler, now an advisor to anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International.
Political analyst Anton Pelinka said “a clear rule is required once and for all for public grants to parties and for party spending to be published,” adding that violators must face “the most severe sanctions”.
The coalition government of the social-democratic SPO and conservative OVP on April 27 agreed a reform package to crack down on political corruption following a string of high-profile scandals in recent years.
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