Kmec's Office Files Criminal Complaint against PS for Reputational Damage

Bratislava, 19 November (TASR) - The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for the Recovery Plan and a Knowledge-Based Economy is filing a criminal complaint against the opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party for defamation, reputational damage and spreading false information in response to statements made by PS MP Jan Hargas on Tuesday, TASR has learnt from the deputy prime minister's office. Hargas said that another failure in the research and development grant calls issued by the office led by Peter Kmec (Voice-SD) was the evaluation process itself, stating that evaluations took place before the evaluators were even contracted. According to the deputy prime minister's office, an audit of the calls is currently underway and its results will be announced by the end of next week. Concerning Hargas's criticism regarding the purchases of new cars during a period of consolidation, the deputy prime minister's office responded by stating that it's only purchased three new cars during the past two years and that they weren't luxury limousines but medium-class cars. Furthermore, the office managed to save almost €30,000 when compared to market prices, with all three cars thereby costing €140,000 in total. The deputy prime minister's office also denied having paid for this year's SlovakiaTech Expo conference. Hargas pointed to a subsidy that was received by the daughter of the deputy prime minister's adviser Juraj Miskov. She 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. "It isn't true that the office paid for this year's SlovakiaTech, as dozens of important Slovak private and state-run companies contributed to it. This event is organised under the auspices of almost all ministries. In addition, the office provided the same amount of funding for the Slovak Researchers Night, thereby saving the event after the EU refused to finance it any more," added the deputy prime minister's office. jrg/df