BRATISLAVA, December 18, (WEBNOVINY- The Supreme Audit Office has already checked contracts in the Hayeks‘ case. Its spokeswoman Lenka Nosalova has confirmed for TA3 news channel that the authority has already concluded inspections of the contracts. Based on the outcome, Prime Minister Iveta Radicova should shortly decide on the fate of Economy Ministry State Secretary Martin Chren who is a SaS nominee. The NKU was also to examine suspicions of assets siphoning in the National Agency for Development of Small and Medium Enterprises (NADSME).
After almost two months of investigation, the Supreme Audit Office said that the sum of almost EUR 2 million which the previous government paid to the company Hayek Consulting was used in line with the concluded contracts. Co-owners of Hayek Consulting Martin Chren and MOST-HID’s Ivan Svejna became state secretaries at the Economy Ministry and the Ministry of Transport respectively after June elections. Beginning 2007, their firm won several orders from the Finance Ministry and NADSME. After the case surfaced Prime Minister Iveta Radicova sad that if the Supreme Audit Office does not confirm transparency, effectiveness and profitability of the contracts, both secretaries will have to go. Unlike Svejna, Chren did not resign from his post. Similarly to the prime minister he has not made any statement yet on the Supreme Audit Office’s conclusions. The SaS did not comment on them either.
When looking into the controversial contracts, the Supreme Audit Office came to a conclusion that that the Hayek Consulting company did what it was demanded. According to the Supreme Audit Office the wording of the order was problematic, for which the ministry and NADSME bear responsibility. If they had set better conditions the state might have saved thousands of euros, said the authority. Nosalova told TA3 that during its control the office revealed three cases of not securing economical use of spent finances in the case of the ministry while one such case was disclosed regarding NADSME. Ex-finance minister Jan Pociatek did not elaborate on the result. The complete NADSME management had step down over assets siphoning allegations.
The Supreme Audit Office examined the contracts concluded by the Finance Ministry and NADSME with the firm Hayek Consulting, based on a resolution proposed by the Speaker of the Slovak Parliament, Richard Sulik (SaS), and passed by legislators. The Hayek Consulting case was unveiled after the information had been released that two co-owners of the company, later appointed as state secretaries in the Iveta Radicova’s Cabinet, allegedly made money on contracts announced by the Finance Ministry under the previous government and SMER-SD Minister Jan Pociatek. The second controversial event relates to an 8,100-euro contract awarded by NADSME to Hayek Consulting at the time when Chren and Svejna already served in the government, which would constitute a conflict of interest. The company later canceled the contract, so its fulfillment did not start at all.
SITA