Premier: Whistleblowers Office Doing Dirty Work for People Who Committed Crimes

Bratislava, 2 December (TASR) - The Whistleblowers Protection Office (UOO) is doing dirty work on behalf of people who committed serious crimes between 2020-2023, and this office is now protecting them, claimed Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) on Tuesday, adding that the government wants to use legal and democratic means to remove obstacles that could lead to these people being held accountable. "This government has the democratic legal right to make changes to institutions if it sees that these institutions are doing dirty work," said Fico. Regarding the bill's discussion in Parliament in connection with the change to the office, the premier stated that fears of a fast-tracked legislative process were unfounded, claiming that such an extensive debate would never have taken place if the bill had been divided into a first reading at the December session, a second reading, and a third reading in January or February. "There is a huge number of speakers, no one is restricting anyone, everyone can speak as much as they want. Therefore, the argument that this is happening via a fast-tracked procedure is misplaced. The discussion is concentrated in the first, second and third readings at a single session," stressed Fico, stating that the office will have the same powers as it had before, with the addition of powers in the area of protecting victims of crime. The prime minister also pointed out that personnel decisions will be made when the office is restructured,. According to him, office head Zuzana Dlugosova is from the opposition. "The office is being restructured, and whether any personnel decisions will be made is not up to me to decide, but to Parliament. So, if the previous administration put their pawn there, we're asking why we should tolerate it," he said. The bill is being debated via a fast-tracked legislative procedure. The piece of legislation aims to create a new crime victim and whistleblower protection office which should take over the agenda of compensating victims of crime from the Justice Ministry and replace the current Whistleblowers Protection Office. The Interior Ministry pointed to the need to respond to problems when applying the current law, in particular the insufficient rights of an employer of a protected whistleblower. Opposition MPs have criticised the proposal, arguing that it will lead to reduced protection for whistleblowers and victims of crime. They've pointed to a possible conflict with European law and inconsistency with the Slovak Constitution. am/df