Opposition Slams Audit of Innovation Calls as Dubious, Demands Independent Check

Bratislava, 2 December (TASR) - The results of an audit into innovation calls at the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for the Recovery Plan and a Knowledge-based Economy can't be trusted because the audit wasn't an independent check but was carried out by the deputy prime minister's office itself, TASR has learnt from representatives of several opposition parties, who have called for an MPs' survey at the office and an inspection by the Supreme Audit Office (NKU), as questions and suspicions surrounding the calls remain. They were responding to Tuesday's statements by Education Minister Tomas Drucker (Voice-SD), who has been tasked with managing the office on a temporary basis. He said that no serious deficiencies have been found during the ongoing audit that would necessitate the cancellation of the entire subsidy call and that only some minor administrative errors, which could be rectified, have been identified. "Just like in the good old times of the Smer-SD party, Mr Drucker basically told us that nothing's happened. According to him, no serious errors, no violations of the law were found, and therefore the process that was supposed to result in Voice-SD's sponsors and friends receiving millions in subsidies had only minor administrative mistakes ... That's outrageous," said opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) MP Jan Hargas, adding that the audit can't be considered an independent one, as the office's employees are investigating the conduct of other employees of the same office, with all of them reporting to the same boss. "This is why we're demanding, and we've submitted a resolution for this session stating that an MPs' survey should be carried out at the deputy prime minister's office, because that's a truly independent inspection, allowing both opposition and coalition MPs to come to the office and verify how these subsidies were awarded," added Hargas. He thinks that the call should be cancelled in its entirety, as the subsidy award process isn't in order and so can't produce good results. Opposition MP Veronika Remisova ('Slovakia'-For the People) doesn't trust the independence and results of the audit, either. "That's why we're filing a motion with NKU, which has the power to verify whether public funds are spent effectively, to investigate this entire call. Because €180 million from the state budget is a huge amount of money," she emphasised, adding that there are clear ties between several successful bidders and the Voice-SD party. In one of the calls they'd received about a quarter of all allocated funds, noted Remisova. Drucker stressed that projects in which people had ties to Voice-SD won't be provided with subsidies, not because they were bad, but because of ethical issues and public trust in the governance of public finances. jrg/df