BRATISLAVA, September 17, (WEBNOVINY) – Prime Minister Iveta Radicova thinks that the fact that the company Hayek Consulting won a state contract at the time when the firm’s co-owners were incumbent state secretary of the Economy Ministry Martin Chren (SaS) and current state secretary of the Transport Ministry Ivan Svejna (MOST-HID) is possibly a conflict of interests. As the prime minister sees the contract as a problem, she has turned to her coalition partners who she says bear full political responsibility for their nominees with request to propose solutions to the situation. “My stance is unambiguous, I consider it as conflict of interests,” she stated. Leaders of SaS and MOST-HID have until Monday to propose solutions. She added that if they do not do so, she will inform the Coalition Council of her decision.
Earlier on Friday, the opposition SMER-SD party rushed to urge Radicova and Speaker of Parliament Richard Sulik to draw political consequences against Economy Minister Juraj Miskov (SaS) and State Secretaries Martin Chren and Ivan Svejna. The reason says SMER-SD is a scandalous state contract, which the National Agency for Development of Small and Medium Enterprises awarded to the company Hayek Consulting, co-owned by Chren and Svejna. “It is an unprecedented conflict of interests, when the minister played forward a business deal to his state secretary and party colleague,” said SMER-SD chairman Robert Fico adding that “the party SaS, as well as the whole ruling coalition have been speaking all the time about purging political and social life.“
SME daily reported on Friday that the firm Hayek Consulting was arranging state orders even in times when its co-owners Martin Chren (SaS) and Ivan Svejna (MOST-HID) have already been state secretaries in the new cabinet. The company signed a contract worth EUR 8,100 with the National Agency for Development of Small and Medium Enterprises, which is under jurisdiction of the Economy Ministry, in July this year. Chren holds a post of the state secretary at the Economy Ministry and Svejna is in the same position at the Transport Ministry. They both left the firm Hayek Consulting later, after signing the contract. Hayek Consulting withdrew from the contract in mid-August. Both Chren and Svejna claim they have not kept an eye on work of the firm after joining high politics.
SITA