Hargas: Further Action Needed Regarding Flawed R&D Grant Process (2)

Bratislava, 18 November (TASR) – Another failure in the research and development grant calls issued by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for the Recovery Plan and a Knowledge-based Economy, led by Peter Kmec (Voice-SD), was the evaluation process itself, said opposition MP Jan Hargas (Progressive Slovakia) at a press conference on Tuesday. Hargas added that ousting Kmec isn't enough; further measures are required. It was the opposition that highlighted the questionable grant calls last week, after which Kmec resigned. "These decisions were announced somewhere between 24 and 29 October of this year. However, the contracts with expert evaluators were uploaded onto the central register of contracts only on 31 October and became valid on 1 November. That means that the evaluations took place before the evaluators were even contracted. I ask: who actually evaluated those projects?" said Hargas. For this reason, he called on Kmec or his successor to cancel the entire call, arguing that the evaluation process was non-transparent. Hargas also criticised the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for the Recovery Plan and a Knowledge-based Economy for purchasing new cars during a period of consolidation and cost-cutting. He specified that the office currently owns 15 vehicles, and last week it bought three more cars for almost €175,000. The opposition MP further pointed to another subsidy for the SlovakiaTech Expo conference, which was received by the daughter of the deputy prime minister's adviser Juraj Miskov. Miskov's daughter signed a memorandum of cooperation with the deputy prime minister's office on the basis of which, according to Hargas, the office paid for the entire conference and arranged the rental of a humanoid robot from the United Kingdom. He explained that after signing the memorandum, the deputy prime minister's office launched a public procurement process, subsequently approached three companies, and within less than three days received a €240,000 bid from the winning company. According to Hargas, the procurement was merely formal, as one company didn't participate at all. NOTE: This story has been extended to include the final two paragraphs mf/df