Assessing gifts, invitations and hospitality

1. Regulatory Concept & Core Standards

This video's topic is assessing gifts, invitations and hospitality. By the end, you should be able to assess an offer through its context and applicable rules. We will connect the information available, the criterion guiding the decision and the action that must be recorded. Follow the case and compare your answer with the proposed response. Rules vary by role, sector and entity. This course sets no universal acceptable gift value. It develops assessment criteria and declaration, review and decision procedures to align with the code of conduct and applicable special regimes.

Assess giver, recipient, purpose, timing and pending decisions. Low value alone does not ensure permissibility. The Government Office’s 2026 guidance states that civil servants must not accept gifts or advantages connected with their service, except those provided by the service office. The historical CZK 300 figure cannot be used as a general current permission.

Apply the following rule: Section 2 covers conduct with the elements of a crime, administrative offences whose statutory maximum fine is at least CZK 100,000, breaches of the Whistleblower Protection Act itself and breaches in the listed legal fields. The reporting person need not prove the breach. An ordinary disagreement does not automatically meet these tests.

2. Practical Implementation & Procedure

Identify whether the person is in civil service, another public role or a private relationship. Check current rules and any specific exception, not merely price. Do not automatically accept an uncertain offer; use the designated assessment procedure. Record refusal or another authorised outcome. Internal approval cannot override a legal prohibition. Before moving on, turn this procedure into a sequence you could explain to a colleague. Identify the first check, the action that depends on its outcome and the record that allows the decision to be reconstructed. Follow the sequence on screen and identify the point where an error would change the result.

3. Case Study & Compliance Action

A supplier says that a small courtesy is always allowed below a fixed amount. The recipient checks the current regime for their role rather than relying on an archived page or another organisation’s threshold. Now read the case carefully. Separate established facts from information you would still need to confirm. Do not add motives or events that have not been described. This distinction matters when choosing a response proportionate to the information available.

The exercise is as follows: Does low value automatically make a gift permissible? Choose an answer and write one sentence explaining it. During the pause, compare your choice with the criteria we have just considered. Also think about the material you would retain to explain the decision later.

No. The applicable role, current rules and context decide. Do not rely on the historical CZK 300 figure as current civil-service permission. An internal approval cannot remove a statutory prohibition.

One mistake to avoid is: using a historical or foreign threshold as universal permission.

Now apply the national rule to a second decision. A report is automatically classified as protected because it contains the word corruption. What check is missing?

Read the facts and apply the national scope, context and conditions for protection. A form label helps organise information but does not determine the legal framework. If the case falls outside the regime, identify an appropriate route without unnecessarily disclosing information.