BBSK Convenes Regional Security Council Over Bus Transport Issues

Banska Bystrica, January 24 (TASR) - The Banska Bystrica region (BBSK) and bus operator SAD Zvolen failed to arrive at an agreement at talks stretching for longer than two hours on Friday, which means that the majority of region bus lines won't be serviced as of Saturday (January 25) until further notice, SAD Zvolen board of directors chair Adrian Polony reported on the same day. BBSK governor Jan Lunter claimed earlier in the day that he didn't believe bus transport could come to a standstill as of Saturday because such a move would constitute public endangerment. BBSK vice-governor Ondrej Lunter announced that BBSK will convene an extraordinary session of the regional security council later in the day to assess the seriousness of the situation and consider whether or not to call upon the National Security Council to intervene. The BBSK governor will also ask a court to force the bus operator not to act in breach of public interest and asked Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini to use the fact that the state owns almost 40 percent of stocks as a minority shareholder in SAD Zvolen to protect the rule of law. However, no state representative showed up to the talks and Pellegrini subsequently rebuked Lunter on the grounds that transport falls under the direct powers of the BBSK governor and no one else. Lunter reiterated that he had no choice but to challenge at court the legality of a contract addendum, signed with the bus operator by his predecessor Marian Kotleba, because a substantiated suspicion exists, embraced also by a Zvolen District Court, that the addendum flies in the face of European law. This is because without a tender the law allows the conclusion of a contract with only two-year duration at maximum. Such an amended offer was extended to the bus operator, but SAD Zvolen turned it down. According to Lunter, the bus operator also presented the region with an ultimatum, demanding advance payments that equalled double the usual sum in January, which the governor perceives as blackmail. mf