Hargas: Drucker Signing Grants Even Before Audit Has Ended

Bratislava, 19 December (TASR) - Acting Deputy Prime Minister for the Recovery Plan and a Knowledge-based Economy Tomas Drucker (Voice-SD) has begun publishing grant contracts from the so-called 'Kmec call' even though an internal audit of the entire process hasn't yet been completed, MP Jan Hargas (PS), who considers this to be a grossly scandalous move, warned on Friday. "They prepared the ground for this for more than two weeks and are now quietly signing contracts and publishing them in the Central Register of Contracts. Tomas Drucker has already signed 24 projects worth a total of more than €74 million without the public knowing the results of the audit that was supposed to examine the suspect process of allocating grants," said Hargas. According to Progressive Slovakia, this is a clear signal that the government has begun handing out early Christmas gifts to selected companies. "The absolute minimum that they should have done was to publish the audit results and only then act. Instead, they're pretending that everything is fine. It isn't," the MP stressed. In Hargas's view, the entire process has inspired serious doubts from the outset. "There was the suspect drawing of evaluators and inconsistencies over who actually evaluated the projects. And today we're supposed to pretend everything is fine just because three companies dropped out of the call? They should first have convinced the public that the process was fair and only then sign contracts," stated Hargas. He also considers it to be extremely serious that Drucker has signed contracts totalling more than €10 million with companies that don't even have research and development listed among their business activities. This concerns grants for Acrea (nearly €946,800), Gros Bakery (Pekaren Gros/€560,000), Ruckschloss (over €4.386 million) and Kraftec (over €4.688 million). Former deputy prime minister for the recovery plan and a knowledge-based economy Peter Kmec (Voice-SD) submitted his resignation in mid-November following criticism from the opposition and the media over calls to support science, research and innovation projects. mf/df