Sasko: It Was Just Trial Run of Two Cameras, Not Live Operation

(TA3,'V politike', 16 August) Speaking on TA3's discussion programme 'V politike' (In Politics) on Sunday, Health Minister Kamil Sasko (Voice-SD) said that traffic radar cameras containing Russian components were only in trial operation and that their deployment in full operation wasn't planned. "Two cameras were only on trial run. Under no circumstances were they in live operation, nor was it ever planned for these cameras to enter live operation," said Sasko. As he is not, in his own words, a security expert, Sasko cannot comment on the issue in a qualified manner. He denied that he was downplaying the issue or ignoring the security context. Nevertheless, he believes that a security system is necessary and that the project must go ahead. According to Progressive Slovakia (PS) vice-chair Beata Jurik, also on the show, it is regrettable if such a serious information about a security threat comes from the opposition rather than from the Interior Ministry or intelligence services. She believes that Interior Minister Sutaj Estok should be held accountable, as ensuring security is precisely his responsibility. Asked where her colleagues from PS got the information, she replied that they 'did precise analytical and meticulous work', also based on publicly available information. She said that further information was forthcoming that was 'in the process of analysis'. Sasko reiterated that he'll present a draft solution to the tender for operating emergency medical service (EMS) stations soon. He promised to present a respective draft to the Commission for Emergency Health Care within a few weeks. However, he declined to provide details, refusing to speak publicly about something that was still the subject of internal discussions. At the same time, he rejected claims that no progress has been made a year after the scrapping of the tender. According to him, the issue requires more time, as the current system hasn't been set up properly and legislative matters also needed to be addressed. Meanwhile, Jurik said that it has been known for years that the system needs to be fixed and that the law is poorly set up, so there's no ground to cite these things as excuses after a year. She doesn't think that they've prepared an effective proposal, but that they just "gave time to big players". ko