BRATISLAVA, April 11, (WEBNOVINY) — Director of the Tax Directorate Miroslav Mikulcik, appointed by Minister of Finance Ivan Miklos, secured a multi-million euro deal for regional head of SDKU-DS in Nitra Ondrej Scurko, says Chairman of the opposition party SMER-SD and former Prime Minister Robert Fico. He was referring to the lease of the building for the Tax Office in Kosice, for which the Tax Directorate is to pay almost SKK 200 million (EUR 6.6 million) to Scurko’s company Nitra Invest over five years. Fico claims that this is a perfect example of cronyism and Finance Minister Miklos should therefore resign.
Fico added that it was very probable that part of this sum would end up in SDKU’s purse. “It is obvious that there must be some chargeback, it would otherwise be illogical,“ said Fico at a press meeting on Monday. Fico did not comment on whether SMER was planning some actions regarding minister’s resignation. The party wants to wait for Prime Minister Iveta Radicova’s statement, who, Fico opines, should take action, also based on her previous statements. The prime minister had not taken a stance yet as she wants to scrutinize all relevant information first. “We will definitely want to receive information from the Tax Directorate and then we will release our statement,“ said Radicova’s spokesman Rado Bato for SITA news agency.
Fico underscored that the whole issue is also interesting because the fact that the previous government was already looking for a building for the Kosice Tax Office and selected a better and cheaper building. State authorities even signed a letter of intent with the company VSH Development in the spring 2010 but shortly after Iveta Radicova’s government took over, the company received a letter informing that the state did not have sources for concluding a contract at that time. Ignoring the letter of intent, Mikulcik eventually signed a rent contract for the building with Scurko’s company, which was signed on March 8 of this year.
SITA