BRATISLAVA, January 20, (WEBMAIL) — Chairman of the SaS party and Speaker of Parliament Richard Sulik claims that if his party had not been established a year before elections, the left-wing government lead by Robert Fico would have committed even greater evil and pillaging than before 2010. Sulik finds the origination of the present ruling government to be the greatest contribution of his party. He said on Thursday at a press meeting dedicated to evaluation of the first six months of SaS’ participation in the coalition that the current government is rectifying sins that the previous government committed. “SaS stopped thievery in this country. Our party has proven to be a party of experts. Our ministers manifest the highest quality,” he said.
Sulik admitted that SaS had also made mistakes. “We can admit to mistakes and learn from them. We now make fewer errors,” he announced. He considers the project of a Liberal House a grave misstep and he apologized to voters for that. Other mistakes he admitted to include his private flight to Salzburg or his lunch with ambassadors. He assured that his party was going to resolutely fulfill its program. “We know that we will not manage to meet all our goals but we will put in sincere effort in doing the best we can. The party will do everything in its power to fulfill the promise of introduction a contribution bonus [major reform of payroll levies — SITA note],” he added.
Minister of Labor, Social Affairs and Family Jozef Mihal (SaS) underscored that the new government supports young families and thus fulfills the government’s program statement. The state budget earmarked EUR 105 million more than in 2010 for support to young families for this year. “We have rectified the system of sick leave benefits. We have eliminated the abnormality, according to which beneficiaries of parental allowance cannot work and discrimination of surrogate families. We removed exceptions from the law on social insurance, which is the first necessary move towards other changes like introduction of super-gross wage,” said Mihal.
Minister of Economy Juraj Miskov pointed out that his ministry managed to save EUR 16 million in the second half of 2010 thanks to introduction of electronic auctions. “This should save 40 percent of costs in the future,” he said in reference to electronic auctions used for public procurement of goods and services. His goal is improvement in the business environment.
Minister of Defense Lubomir Galko says that the new leadership at the ministry halted reckless misappropriation at the ministry. “We are filing criminal complaints if we discover violations of the law,” he said. He named the purchase of boats without engines as an example. He reminded that armed forces assisted in rescuing of people and their property affected by floods and landslides. He also praised increase in their reputation abroad. The minister said that increase in the number of soldiers in Afghanistan was financially covered this time. “Slovakia’s participation in international affairs was rewarded by an offer to be the leading country in the ALTEA mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. We are considering the offer,” the minister said. He intends to turn the ministry in a transparent and functioning institution and prove that the defense department can operate without corruption scandals.
SaS has met one of important pre-election goals at the Ministry of Culture – establishment of the new public institution Radio and Television of Slovakia (RTVS), which is the beginning of a reform of public broadcasting. “We had the courage to start the reform. Transformation of the state-run news agency TASR will be next,“ underscored Culture Minister Daniel Krajcer. The ministry set stricter rules for operation of the Audiovisual Fund. The minister also pointed out cancellation of one of the worst contracts of the previous government, namely the extremely disadvantageous contract on digitalization of cultural heritage.
SITA