BRATISLAVA, January 10, (WEBNOVINY)- Prime Minister and acting Defense Minister Iveta Radicova has decided that the head of the BoD of the military maintenance company VOP Novaky, Lubomir Repcik as well as members of the state-run firm’s supervisory board will be dismissed. The decision comes after the case regarding VOP controversial loans and mortgage came to light. SME daily was first to report on it. The state-run joint stock company borrowed EUR 70,000 from the company Sitno Holding of ex-economy minister from the era of Mikulas Dzurinda’s first government, Ludovit Cernak to be able to pay out wages, reported the daily. VOP Novaky has mortgaged a portion of its assets to the benefit of Cernak’s firm. According to their mortgage contract, Sitno Holding is now free to sell one of the company’s four production halls and ammunition warehouses in case that it does not get any installment following a call. “VOP failed to secure validity of loan contracts and concluded an invalid mortgage contract,” argued the prime minister. According to a stance provided by the Cabinet Office’s press department “the procedure of the management of VOP Novaky has been at odds with laws and statutes of the military company.”
The documents that Repcik submitted at the Cabinet Office’s request and the Central Register of Contracts show that loan contracts concluded by VOP have not been published in the central register as ordered by the law. “This means that the law-set duty to publish contracts has been violated and loan contracts have never come into effect. Moreover, the mortgage contract has been invalid as well as it was concluded for loan contracts that are null and void, i.e. for a non-existent obligation. The mortgage contract was signed without the previous consent of the supervisory board, which contravenes the company’ statutes,“ reads the stance. The Cabinet Office also pointed to the fact that the chairman of the BoD of VOP Novaky misleadingly informed the Defense Ministry that a mortgage loan is being prepared but in fact it was already concluded on December 1, 2011. VOP could have asked for a loan the Finance Ministry or the Cabinet but it failed to do so, said the office.
SITA