PS Files Motion with UVO and NKU over ZSR's Infrastructure Upgrade Contracts

Bratislava, 7 October (TASR) - The opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party is filing a motion with the Public Procurement Office (UVO) and the Supreme Audit Office (NKU) to investigate whether railway-infrastructure operator ZSR has unlawfully split contracts for infrastructure upgrades, TASR reported on Wednesday. As an example, PS MP Jan Hargas referred to the renovation of the Tvardosovce-Palarikovo railway section in the district of Nove Zamky (Nitra region), which ZSR divided into three smaller sections. "We want to check how ZSR chooses companies for these contracts that are awarded without competition, and we want to verify whether they are cost-effective. If the state tells people that it doesn't have the money for modern and functioning railways, then it must explain why its contracts, for example, those awarded to TSS Grade, come with such inflated prices," said PS MP Darina Luscikova. According to her, if contracts awarded without competition are more than 40 percent more expensive, "we're really not talking about pocket money", but about millions of euros that are lacking for railway lines, stations, safety and passenger services. "When people have to put up with delays, closures and neglected railways every single day, they have every right to ask why their money is being managed so inefficiently," said Luscikova. Hargas stated that ZSR signed very dubious contracts with TSS Grade a year ago, with the first contract concerning the Tvardosovce-Palarikovo section. "The railway line and railway stops along this route are to be renovated. The total cost of the renovation is €14 million," he said, adding that ZSR artificially split the contract into three smaller ones to avoid public procurement and awarded them directly to the company without competition. He added that when the contract for the reconstruction of Bratislava-Nove Mesto station is compared with another contract that had been awarded via a public tender, some prices were inflated by as much as tenfold. "We compared the same commodities in a contract awarded directly to TSS Grade with another contract that had been awarded via a standard public tender," said Hargas, adding that this contract was also awarded to the same company. jrg/df