Nature of Charge for Breach of Budgetary Discipline from Czech Perspective

This article is focused on the issue of the imposition of the charge for the breach of the budgetary discipline and its nature as a criminal sanction for the purposes of the application of articles 6 and 7 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental freedoms. The author familiarizes the reader with the basics of the Czech regulation, pointing out the specific issue related to the recipients of public subsidies. In this case, the Czech legislator must deal with the issue of the competed public authorities because particular breach of the budgetary discipline can be sanctioned also by a fine levied by the Office for the Protection of Competition. Otherwise, the current regulation of the charge for the breach of the budgetary does not necessarily be in accordance with the principle non bis in idem pursuant to article 4 of the Protocol No. 7 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental freedoms, if the nature of the charge and fine is criminal. Therefore, this article is also devoted to the application of the Engel criteria to the charge for the breach of the budgetary discipline to provide an answer whether this charge is a criminal sanction, and finally, it describes from the perspective of the application of the non bis in idem principle, how negatively the imposition of this charge could be affected if its nature is identified as a criminal one. The scientific methods used are the analysis, induction, deduction and description.