Education Ministry: Copying Opinions on Incentives Is Impossible

Bratislava, January 15 (TASR) - Copying opinions on incentives isn't possible, assessors work in an electronic system under their own logins, Education, Science, Research and Sport Ministry said in response to the statements made by MP for the Opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party Branislav Grohling, TASR learnt on Tuesday. Grohling said earlier on Tuesday that several expert opinions on R&D incentives give an unprofessional feeling and it seems that two of them were copied. "Certain consistency in the formulation of opinions is common and desirable, as many assessors were given a sample of an assessment form based on a specific area, and at the same time they were bound to proceed according to published methodologies and a uniform manual for evaluation," said the ministry, adding that a certain degree of unification is required for comparability and consistent evaluation of projects. The ministry is convinced that this absolutely does not diminish the credibility of the evaluation. "On the contrary, it proves that assessors work on the evaluated project in a detailed and faithful way and verify and certify the facts presented in the project, while acting independently," stated the ministry. "Various opinions on the stimuli worth €33 million seem to be very suspicious and unprofessional. For example, two independent opinions concerning a project worth €1.3 million, worked out by two persons, were literally copied and only translated from Czech into Slovak," said Grohling. He also pointed to the evaluation with an assessor knowing neither the cost, nor technologies related to the project, but believing that the requirements are adequate. According to Grohling, the assessors thus do not understand what they are evaluating, but give a full number of points to the project. am/mcs