SaS Calls on Keketi to Publish Details of Renting Tourism Ministry HQ

Bratislava, May 24 (TASR) - The opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party has called on Tourism and Sport Minister Dusan Keketi (a Slovak National Party/SNS nominee) to publish the exact costs of renting the ministry building and to explain the criteria according to which the premises were found to offer the most advantageous bid. SaS vice-chair Marian Viskupic at a news conference on Friday stated that the Tourism and Sport Ministry will be based in lucrative, overpriced rented premises. He called it an example of squandering public money. Viskupic said that the published contract includes a rental price of almost €20 per square metre per month. The rented area totals almost 5,000 square metres. "It is not acceptable for a state with a huge deficit, with a high national debt, to rent a top-standard building at a price that even a highly profitable private company cannot afford to pay," stated Viskupic. Civil servants shouldn't even think about a building like that, he said. "The average rental cost of office space in Bratislava has remained at about €12 [per square metre] over the long term. The state has rented premises almost twice as expensive as the market average," he added. According to Viskupic, energy and service-related payments are also underestimated in the contract. He estimates the annual rent at €1,787,000. According to SaS, economy and efficiency mean nothing to the minister. Moreover, it is practically impossible for the state to cancel the contract in the first ten years, stated the party, which can see no real results of the ministry's work in its first 100 days. Keketi in early May claimed that the price for renting premises for the ministry and its organisations was the most advantageous. Three bids were shortlisted, with price being the decisive criterion. According to Keketi, all the buildings were visited by a commission that featured representatives of the Finance Ministry's Value for Money unit and ministry employees. The Tourism and Sport Ministry will be based in Warehouse No. 7 at Bratislava's shopping and administrative centre near the Danube River. ko/df