'Slovakia' Party: Transport Minister Raz Should Resign or Be Ousted (2)

Bratislava, 20 November (TASR) – Transport Minister Jozef Raz (a Smer-SD nominee) should step down from his post, representatives of the opposition 'Slovakia' party, Michal Sipos, Julius Jakab and Gabor Grendel, declared on Thursday. According to the opposition MPs, the reasons include not only recent railway accidents but also, for example, a contract worth almost €100 million that the former management of rail passenger carrier ZSSK signed with ZOS Vrutky on its final day in office. The party plans to collect MPs' signatures in order to initiate Raz's dismissal. "Last week, we publicly called on Transport Minister Jozef Raz to resign and thus take personal political responsibility for repeated train collisions. We gave him until Friday (14 November) to do so and announced that if he failed to resign, we would begin collecting signatures for his dismissal in Parliament," said Grendel. According to Grendel, last Friday only the train collisions were at issue, but further reasons have now emerged confirming that Raz's dismissal is justified. "In addition to the repeated train collisions, another reason is an outrageous contract worth almost €100 million. On his last day in office, then ZSSK chief Peter Helexa signed a contract worth almost €100 million with the company of Vitazoslav Moric, who has been doing business in this sector for decades. The company in question was ZOS Vrutky, tasked with supplying rail carriages," he specified. He added that it was once again the political responsibility of minister Raz that he failed to prevent this, that he didn't stop the outgoing management of ZSSK from signing such a contract on its last day in office before it had to leave due to the train collisions. A third reason that makes the proposal to dismiss Raz from office particularly relevant, said Grendel, are the latest statements by representatives of the Voice-SD party, who have publicly called on Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) to hold Raz accountable and to "apply the same standards". "And we agree with that, because Voice representatives publicly state that if there were grounds for holding Deputy Prime Minister Peter Kmec (Voice-SD) politically accountable, then there are equally grounds for dismissing Transport Minister Jozef Raz," he added. Grendel said that if Voice politicians truly mean that Raz should leave his post as transport minister, they'll have an opportunity to demonstrate this principled stance in Parliament during the vote on a motion of no-confidence in Jozef Raz. "We consider it absolutely essential that they should support the opening of such a parliamentary session and allow a vote on whether minister Raz should remain in office or be dismissed," said Grendel. NOTE: This story has been extended to include the final paragraph mf/df