BRATISLAVA, September 22, (WEBNOVINY) — Ex-Minister of Defense Jaroslav Baska (SMER-SD) accused his successor Lubomir Galko from SaS of merely speaks about transparency and in reality handling state assets in a non-transparent and uneconomical way. Baska said that an example of such behavior is this year’s air show at the Sliac military air base. Deputies for the SMER-SD party plan to convene a meeting of the Parliamentary Defense and Security Committee to ask the minister how much he paid for the air show.
Baska says that Galko directly influenced the tender for the organizer of the event. „He purposively changed terms and deadlines of the competition and the composition for the contest. Moreover, also the financial guarantee that the ministry required in the first call underwent a change. Baska has both calls at hand and says that if the first call had not been canceled, a firm could have won the tender that organized the event in the past. Baska specified that Galko’s spokesman was put on the commission and deadlines were altered as well. “I am asking Mr. Galko why he cared so much that a completely different company won the right to organize the national air show this year,“ Baska wanted to know.
He claims that the revamped commission failed to pick the „most advantageous offer“. Unlike the failed company, the winner did not offer to cover fuel for airplanes of the invited armies, said Baska. This sum is close to EUR 100,000, being the most costly item of the air show. The problem also is that the Defense Ministry provided the air base free of charge to the company that earned on sublet contracts from vendors and suppliers. „The Defense Ministry at helm with minister Galko provided state assets – the entire air base free of charge to a private company that organized its private business,’ complained Baska.
In reaction to Baska’s accusations, Defense Minister Lubomir Galko told journalists that his predecessor must have gone mad. According to the minister, Baska’s question to journalists why the air show was cheaper and more transparent than the one organized by him, is silly. Galko went on to say that the terms and deadlines of the competition were changed purposefully, so that more contestants would submit bids. He added that Baska lied when he said that the unsuccessful competitor offered to cover fuel costs. He cited the bid, where it is stipulated that everything but fuel costs would be covered.
Galko concluded by saying that it is only logical that the Defense Ministry, the main partner of the event, provided the site for the air show. „I don’t know what Mr. Baska would like in terms of where aircraft should take off and land, whether somewhere in an aquapark or on highways, but for that SMER-SD should have first built them during the previous [election] term,“ Galko added.
SITA