Hargas: Time for Minister Migal to Stop Racket Centred around Slovensko.sk

Bratislava, 13 March (TASR) - It's time for Investment, Regional Development and Informatization Samuel Migal (independent) Minister to stop his racket surrounding an overhaul of the Slovensko.sk digital platform, as the project in its current form has neither political nor expert support, and it's clear to everyone that it isn't really a strategic investment, said MP Jan Hargas (Progressive Slovakia/PS) at a press conference on Friday. Hargas pointed out that in February Migal had the government approve the platform overhaul as a strategic investment, even though many experts had warned that this wasn't in line with legislation. "Strategic investments are large infrastructure projects - roads, railways, hospitals, large structures. It's obvious and clear to anyone who has read that law that it can't apply to software; that is, to everyone except Minister Migal," said Hargas. According to him, this was confirmed this week by the Public Procurement Office (UVO). "UVO concluded that software really can't be declared a strategic investment. Even if that software were installed on some old hardware, it would probably still not meet the characteristics of a strategic investment. Simply put, it swept Migal's arguments off the table," said the opposition MP. Hargas pointed out that Progressive Slovakia appealed to the Prosecutor-General's Office last week regarding this matter. "So, if the Public Procurement Office hadn't done it, I'm sure that the Prosecutor-General's Office would have done so in the near future," he said. He again called on Migal to finally halt his Slovensko.sk platform activities. "It's high time to admit defeat; it's high time to stop this deal. It simply has no support anywhere, this stubbornness doesn't help in any way, and you'll only continue to embarrass yourself," the opposition MP added. mf/df