PS Warns of Political Corruption, Deputy PM's Office Rejects Allegations (2)

Bratislava, 12 November (TASR) – Opposition party Progressive Slovakia (PS) on Wednesday drew attention to a case involving a company allegedly linked to a donor to the Voice-SD party, which received a €3-million subsidy to support robotics under the authority of Deputy Prime Minister for the Recovery Plan and Knowledge-based Economy Peter Kmec (Voice-SD), while the Deputy Prime Minister's Office has rejected the allegations. Opposition MP Jan Hargas (PS) described the case as an example of political corruption. "Under a call for support for robotics and automation, a company called Grizzly Capital received a subsidy worth three million euros. This company owns another firm, Consult 4U, which donated €14,000 to the Voice party in 2022. Both companies are financially and personally interconnected and share the same statutory representative," said Hargas. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for the Recovery Plan and Knowledge-based Economy has denied that the grant represented any kind of favour to the Voice–SD party. "Each project was evaluated by two independent assessors. These assessors weren't assigned by office staff but were drawn at random from a list of assessors, and a notarial record exists of the draw," said Alena Sabelova from the Deputy Prime Minister's Office. Regarding the evaluation process, she added that each assessor saw the company they were evaluating and had the right to raise a conflict of interest. "And believe me, there were assessors who did have some connection to the company they were evaluating. They declared a conflict of interest and were replaced by another randomly selected assessor," stated Sabelova. Grizzly Capital has objected to being drawn into a political dispute, describing such efforts as regrettable and counter-productive, especially at a time when Slovakia needs a stable and supportive environment for innovation and technological development. "Grizzly Capital is a holding company that, within the given call, submitted a project representing the professional capacities of all companies in the group. The group currently employs more than 70 people and has long been active in the automotive industry. The company's ownership and management structures have no connection to any political party," stated the company. NOTE: This story has been extended to include the final paragraph mf/df