Drucker: We Won't Tolerate Attempts at Private Enrichment at Expense of State

Bratislava, 26 January (TASR) - It's unacceptable for various consultants and "fixers" to try to abuse the state and public tenders for their own private enrichment, and anyone who encounters such behaviour should immediately contact law-enforcement bodies, stated Education Minister and acting Vice-premier for the Recovery Plan and a Knowledge-based Economy Tomas Drucker (Voice-SD) on Monday, adding that he's obtained such serious information and has immediately forwarded it to the law-enforcement authorities. "We won't tolerate any attempts to misuse the name of the state or public calls for private enrichment. I'm sending out this message because I've received very disturbing signals about the possible misuse of the name of the state by individuals who are outside the official processes. I received one such piece of information by email last Thursday," he said. Drucker didn't want to go into details due to the ongoing investigation. "All I can tell you is that I received an email from a representative of one of the bidders saying that someone had approached them claiming that they could arrange something if they were paid. They can't arrange anything," emphasised Drucker, adding that the alleged "fixers" don't seem to be direct employees of the office. According to him, he's forwarded all the information to the Prosecutor-General's Office, and he believes that everyone who encounters something similar should do the same. The proceedings concern innovation calls over which previous vice-premier Peter Kmec (Voice-SD) resigned from his post. According to Drucker, these were important calls that were supposed to help companies innovate in the fields of robotics, automation and biotechnology. As doubts had arisen around them, after taking up office he had a detailed audit conducted and existing evaluation reports re-evaluated abroad. At the same time, state subsidies were reduced by an average of 11 percent, and the 33 successful applicants had to increase their co-financing from their own resources. Of the allocated €233 million, €118 million has been drawn so far, with co-financing at €70 million, stated the minister. Other projects are still being reviewed and may be supported later. am/df