A project called Who is running for our money? Will strengthen the functioning of the anti-page law, a new global anti-corruption tool. The core of the activities will consist in analyzing Slovak practice, strengthening the ability of the civil sector to control the register of company ownership and in the proposal to improve the law with the help of international exchange of experience. The newly created map of the owners of Slovak hotels or restaurants will also bring the topic to citizens in an understandable way, and will allow them to easily get involved in the fight against corruption in person. Transparency of company ownership is an important new part of the anti-corruption fight. Knowing where the money is going helps to disrupt corrupt schemes.
However, the Slovak anti-page law has large gaps. Only three judges have supervision over the law for the entire agenda, although there are already 20,000 companies in the Slovak register. In addition, unlike other countries, Slovakia does not have a public register for all companies - only for those that do large business with the state. About 90% of companies do not make the data on real owners available. The most sustainable of the project solutions will be the amendment of the law on public sector partners, but also the introduction of a better practice of checking the data of the register.
Partners from Norway will check the completeness and transparency of the Norwegian register of business owners, examine data for Slovak entrepreneurs and later present their experiences at a conference in Bratislava. The main benefit of the cooperation is to exchange experiences and skills on how to strengthen public control of the business register.