BRATISLAVA, April 15, (WEBNOVINY) — MOST-HID Chairman Bela Bugar wants to initiate a meeting of chairmen of ruling coalition parties over the case of leasing of the tax office building in Kosice. If coalition partners do not express interest in such meeting, he at least wants to convene a meeting of MOST-HID and SDKU-DS representatives over the issue. Bugar stated at a press meeting on Friday that he takes the situation regarding the case of tax building’s lease very seriously because he reads various comparisons with the former ruling coalition and its scandals. “I am not pleased with the whole affair. Of course, I do not have all the information yet,” he added.
Bugar learned on Thursday that the original letter of intent for lease on a building in Kosice should allegedly not be valid because the company, which former head of the Tax Directorate Igor Sulaj sealed it with, should have provided the moving schedule by end-February and failed to do so. He says that the letter of intent includes a passage, according to which, if the company fails to meet the set deadline, the letter of intent would be invalidated. However, as Bugar has read in a newspaper on Friday, the letter of intent is still valid and the company is holding talks with the Tax Directorate. “If it is really so, I have a serious problem with that,” said Bugar and added that the law does not allow conclusion of two different contracts on the same subject.
The MOST-HID leader stressed that Minister of Finance Ivan Miklos has to take prompt action regarding the information that a Cypriot company is behind the company of the Nitra district SDKU-DS head that leased the building to the Kosice Tax Office. “Miklos has to take action regarding this revelation and disclose his findings and consequences, including personnel implications,” announced Bugar and added that he would continue looking into the whole case. “Miklos has to deal with the matter and inform on further action. I hope he is aware of what losing our party’s trust would mean,” he said. Bugar elaborated that there is always something fishy when it is impossible to define exactly who or what is behind a company. “I am not going to quote the SDKU-DS program or the Prime Minister here claiming that post-box companies are not always the best solution,” he underscored.
Opposition SMER-SD leader Robert Fico accused Director of the Tax Directorate Miroslav Mikulcik, appointed by Minister of Finance Ivan Miklos, of securing a multi-million euro deal for regional head of SDKU-DS in Nitra Ondrej Scurko, namely the lease of the building for the Tax Office in Kosice, for which the Tax Directorate is to pay almost EUR 6.6 million to Scurko’s company Nitra Invest over five years. Fico claims that this is a perfect example of cronyism and Finance Minister Miklos should therefore resign. Fico added that it was very probable that part of this sum would end up in SDKU’s purse.
Bugar also said on Friday that his party was not fully satisfied with the existing coalition agreement on reform of payroll levies concerning the self-employed. He opines that the self-employed cannot be put on a par with employees because they answer for their business with all their property and are not compensated when they decide to go on holiday. “We can still see space for further discussions on the matter here; flat deductible item could be increased from EUR 200 to 1.5-fold of the subsistence minimum. This all is still in the process of preparations and negotiations,” he said. He added that if some self-employed abuse the system, some solution has to be found to eliminate such cases but not all self-proprietors should be punished.
SITA