The world’s first corruption tourist agency is claimed to be in the Czech Republic.
Corrupt Tours’ intention is to focus on corruption and the problems it creates, according to its founder Petr Sourek.
The tour takes people around the landmarks of corruption and cronyism that have dulled the Republic’s progress from socialist economy to capitalist free market.
Several itineraries allow tourists to get ideas of what happened to huge sums of taxpayers’ money which has disappeared, it is said into the pockets of civil servants and shady businessmen.
Ostentatious villas, massively over-priced public construction projects, and local government offices are on the tourist trail.
A year ago in June, police raided the government headquarters and several business offices in a sex, spy and bribery scandal. The prime minister at the time stepped down, even though it had been his regime that had done more than any other to help detectives and prosecutors to track high-level corruption.
The global anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International ranked the Czech Republic 57th out of 177 countries surveyed for its 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index, which measures how corrupt a country's public sector is perceived to be by its citizens.
It was down from its 2012 ranking of 48th place, but was still ahead of neighbouring Slovakia (61st) and did considerably better than Italy (69th), Bulgaria (77th) and Greece (80th).
But it ranked lower than Portugal, which was given 33rd place, and Spain in 40th position.
"Corruption is not just money spent in the wrong way. Corruption is trust misused, and the web of power that's built with this very money," says Petr Sourek.
Comments
Briilliant idea - but would have to be done differently here.
These tours started in the US of celebrities houses - so, being miles apart - were in minibuses and taxis.
In any municipality in Portugal - as the distances between the examples of misused tax payers and Euro support funds are so much less - look out for special rickshaws and tandems.
Or walking groups .....