BRATISLAVA, December 9, (WEBNOVINY) — The Justice Ministry disagrees with criticism of Supreme Court President Stefan Harabin who slammed the state budget for 2011 approved by the Slovak Parliament on Wednesday. According to Harabin, the budget will mean layoffs of senior court officials and assistants. “Not even one percent is going to judiciary from the overall budget, even though courts were ordered new duties. It is irresponsible since each year courts issue more than a million decisions and register almost 200,000 new motions,” said the former justice minister. In his opinion, the shortage of money in the judiciary will also stop all projects to speed up court proceedings such as electronization of court files. It is questionable how making public of the court decisions will be financed, he said, adding that the Supreme Court makes its verdicts public but it financially demanding.
“We cannot agree with the statement of the Supreme Court. The budget of the [Justice Ministry’s] chapter for this year is EUR 270 million and for 2011 EUR 289 million is planned,” spokesperson for the Justice Minister, Peter Bubla, stated in reaction to the criticism. It is a stabilizing budget that will enable all courts to fulfill their duties, he said, adding that at the same time there are also purpose-bound resources so that the situation from four years ago is not repeated. At that time, payroll costs rose by more than 30 percent at the ministry, while debts of state to lawyers, experts, interpreters, witnesses also increased enormously to millions and state was not paying compensations awarded to people by courts either.
SITA