SaS: Thefts of Public Funds Taking Place under Rural Development Support

Bratislava, 5 September (TASR) - There is a small group of people in Slovakia who have sorted out their housing situation using the money of the Slovak people and the European taxpayers, MPs for the opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party told a press conference on Friday. They referred to the Fafokan case [a scandal involving a private luxury villa financed from EU funds, pretending to be a boarding house used for tourism - ed. note] which, they say, is an example of how the EU funds can be embezzled under the guise of rural development support, with state institutions covering up the scandal. SaS chair Branislav Groehling asks what the Agricultural Payment Agency (PPA), currently under the leadership of Smer-SD nominees, is doing now: "Are they trying to recover the money or draw any consequences? No. Just imagine: they are sending more funds to the Fafokan company so that it can spend more and more money." SaS MP Alojz Hlina noted that Fafokan is "one massive scam" and said that the lease agreement has been signed with a non-existent person. Furthermore, the Slovak Land Fund had allegedly granted its consent to the construction of a building intended for public use, he added, asking whether Fafokan is indeed such a building. jrg/mcs