Despite being firmly ensconced in the EU, the Czech Republic suffers from weaknesses in several key dimensions of good governance and anti-corruption. Its fairly robust overall legal framework for anti-corruption notwithstanding, the country is struggling to improve the implementation and enforcement of those laws in order to bolster its overall anti-corruption efforts. Oversight agencies such as the ombudsman and audit office are well-established, although their investigatory and prosecutorial powers remain ineffective. Perhaps the Czech Republic’s most flagrant deficiency is in political financing: the country was one of the worst performers in this area among all the countries covered in the Global Integrity Report: 2010. While there is a legal mandate for parties to disclose donations as well as a monitoring system of their finances, other disclosure requirements, monitoring practices, and donation limits remain extremely weak at both the legal and practical levels. Certain conflicts of interest regulations do exist for members of the legislature, judiciary, and civil service, but they are poorly enforced. For instance, the Civil Service Act, which encompasses conflicts of interest and political independence rules, was adopted as a condition of EU membership, but its implementation has been delayed until January 2012 because of attempts by government parties to retain influence over the civil service. The anti-corruption agency is heavily politicized, with the director appointed by the head of the police. Despite these challenges, the flood of corruption scandals that have been exposed over the past several years point to the vibrancy of the Czech media as a key watchdog.