BRATISLAVA, March 19, (WEBNOVINY) — Ex-Minister of Economy Pavol Rusko announced he was going to file a complaint against charges of fraud filed against him last week in connection with the Gorilla graft file. He also appealed on Special Prosecutor Dusan Kovacik to „personally examine this injustice and intervene.“ Rusko remarked he has not been questioned over the matter until now. “I refuse to accept responsibility and punishment just because someone wants to have as many preferential votes as possible or become the chairman of something,” he complained.
As the former minister informed on Monday, on January 21, 2004 the Cabinet [of Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda] decided to sell shares of the steam-gas energy company Paroplynovy Cyklus (PPC). The plan was to sell 100 percent of shares. At that time, the government’s privatization agency, the National Property Fund controlled 90 percent of the stock and 10 percent were in the hands of the power utility Slovenske Elektrarne while the Economy Ministry executed the respective shareholders’ rights. According to Rusko, the National Property Fund and the buyer signed the contract on the sale of the 90 percent share on March 4, 2004. It was only twenty days after this date when the Cabinet tasked Rusko to elaborate an analysis why the previous steps of the privatization agency had not allowed the sale of the 10 percent in the hands of Slovenske Elektrarne. In his words, the analysis did not scrutinize whether or not FNM had sold the company PPC below its actual value. “It was not my task, that is their responsibility,” Rusko added. He went on to say that it were nominees of KDH and SKDU in the National Property Fund that decided to sell the 90 percent stake. Rusko alleges that the sale could not have taken place without the knowledge of party leaders.
Rusko’s analysis was put on the agenda of the Cabinet session on April 15. 2004 and it was available to every single member of the Cabinet, Rusko argues. However, ahead of the Cabinet session Rusko and then Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda agreed not to sell the ten percent controlled by Slovenske Elektrarne and that’s why the paper was withdrawn from the session. Logically, on June 16 the Cabinet canceled its resolution on the sale dated January as proposed by Rusko. The ex-minister believes that the withdrawal of the analysis in which he mentioned the negative impact of the sale of FNM’s stake in PPC is the reason to raise charges. He noted that if the ten percent share had been sold at that time, the price would have been three-time lower than in 2007, when the stock earned SKK 600 million (nearly EUR 20 million). Rusko asked on this occasion whether someone can seriously label him a fraudster considering the fact that he saved SKK 400 million.
SITA