BRATISLAVA, December 30, (WEBNOVINY) — Two charged employees of the Defense Ministry who are suspected of accepting bribes from participants in public tender are not the only such cases at the ministry, believes Defense Minister Lubomir Galko. He said that accusing merely two ministerial officials will not satisfy him. “Certainly it made us happy that somebody might finally bear criminal responsibility. However it is necessary to hit even higher. I trust our police and the Office to Fight Corruption that they will succeed to prove guilt of those who now pretend to be unknowing, including any politicians who will be convicted of being involved in this business”, said Galko.
The minister informed that several purposively formed „power centers“ were active at the ministry. They had cumulated functions enabling them to plan public procurement, handle it legally, order it, procure it and even increase the volume of funding destined for the procurement. Those centers were able to change contracts while even antedated contracts had been concluded. The centers of power were formed in a way that even the system itself encouraged corrupt practices. One of such centers was the Trencin administration and maintenance of facilities, which organized numerous fictitious tenders with winner picked in advance. Galko said that it is necessary to ask the party SMER-SD whose nominees were at the helm of the ministry in he era of Robert Fico who created such system and why. Galko however added that the system is designed in the way that enables concluding murky deals also behind the minister’s back. Therefore, he decided to dissolve the organization unit in Trencin as of January 31.
Galko informed of the case several weeks after he entered office in July. He however could not provide more details as Interior Minister Lipsic requested confidentiality about the case in order not to mar police work which planned to detain further officials at the ministry red-handed.
The minister announced that he wants to initiate a change to the law enabling civil servant suspected of causing damage to the state to quit with severance payment as ministries do not have any other possibility than to pay the money in order to avoid lawsuits. Galko insists that this legislation is nonsense and wants to consult this controversy with ministerial lawyers.
SITA