BRATISLAVA, September 23, (WEBNOVINY) — Agriculture Minister Zsolt Simon (MOST-HID) told the press on Thursday that his predecessor in office used a subordinated organization, the Food Research Institute, to order promotion materials in 2007 from the company, in which Magdalena Galikova was the authorized representative. “If I am not mistaken, Mrs. Galikova is the daughter of Vladimir Meciar,” said the minister. The contract was signed during the term of one of his predecessors, namely Miroslav Jurena, who was a nominee of the LS-HZDS. The institute paid SKK 950,000 (EUR 31,534) to the company Atelier.
The minister also reported on the case of former section director at the ministry Sona Supekova who left after the June elections while receiving severance payment amounting to her three monthly salaries. The director of the Food Research Institute signed a work contract with her on September 16 to give her notice a day later. He argued that it is a redundant position and approved a four-month severance pay for her. “I can assure you that it will not be paid out. It is the result of wasting public funds by the government of Robert Fico and ministers for the LS-HZDS. The minister said that the severance payment will not be distributed even if his department should be sued due to the decision.
Simon went on to report that the ministry led by Vladimir Chovan paid for printing LS-HZDS election leaflets. The order was disguised by officially presenting the contract as leaflets for the international trade fair Agrokomplex. He specified that at this contract was for printing 25,000 leaflets for EUR 8,250 of taxpayers‘ money. „In my worst nightmare I could not imagine such things,” he said. He specified that the leaflets were printed this May of this year. The minister believes that Chovan must have known about it.
In its reaction to the information, the LS-HZDS labeled Simon’s accusations an banal attempt of the ruling coalition to distract attention from the case of Hayek Consulting. “As Zsolt Simon is going to file a lawsuit, we will not provide any stances until the matter is examined,” said the party spokeswoman Sona Jantolakova.
SITA