BRATISLAVA, November 18, (WEBNOVINY) — Minister of Justice Lucia Zitnanska (SDKU-DS) submitted a proposal to the Constitutional Court to start disciplinary action against Supreme Court President Stefan Harabin. The reason is repeated unsuccessful attempts of the Ministry of Finance to audit the Supreme Court. “Today I made a decision I consider very serious. It does not happen every day that a disciplinary action against a Supreme Court president is taken,” Zitnanska said at a press briefing. She suggests the highest possible punishment Harabin can get: “A wage-cut of 70 percent for one year, that is the maximum penalty for such disciplinary offense,” Zitnanska added. The Ministry received several motions demanding disciplinary action against Harabin. “We do consider all proposals really seriously,” the Justice Minister stated adding that she is not a friend of hasty decisions.
She approved the proposal of the Finance Ministry to start disciplinary action against the Supreme Court President Stefan Harabin. The Finance Ministry announced its motion on October 25 after its auditors repeatedly unsuccessfully attempted to audit the use to public finances at the Supreme Court. According to the opinion presented by the Finance Ministry, ”Harabin defends himself with the erroneous claim that only the Supreme Audit Office is allowed to audit the Supreme Court”. Zitnanska considers Harabin’s actions to be serious disciplinary offense. She acted according to information from the motion filed by Finance Minister Ivan Miklos and the file forwarded by the Office to Fight Corruption. Zitnanska says that there is a reason to take disciplinary action against Harabin as it has been four times that he did not allow the audit, which she considers legitimate, at the Supreme Court. “An audit of spending public funds at the Supreme Court can under no circumstances endanger the independent character of the Supreme Court,” underlined Zitnanska. According to her, this independence is guaranteed by the Constitution and by laws.
Zitnanska is convinced that every court chairman — not only the one of the Supreme Court – has to honor the law, when citizens are required to obey it. The chairmen of the courts are obliged to keep a maximal level of transparency when managing public funds at the courts. “They should not give pretense for rising doubts about their status, status of the courts and strengthen the impression that there is something to hide with their behavior. Such behavior is responsible for the bad image of the entire judicial system. If the Supreme Court President behaves like this, it creates a bad image of the entire judiciary,” Zitnanska thinks.
The Finance Ministry has been trying to audit the use of public funds at the Supreme Court repeatedly since August 2010. The Supreme Court has always refused the audit, for which it was fined thirty-three thousand euro by the Finance Ministry. Both sides are mutually suing each other. Both the Constitutional Court President Ivetta Macejkova and the ombudsman Pavel Kandrac consider the Finance Ministry auditing the spending of the Supreme Court to be a standard procedure.
SITA