BRATISLAVA, August 12, (WEBNOVINY) — The doors are forever closed for SDKU politician Ivan Miklos and his people, wrote the Supreme Court in reaction to the announcement of Finance Minister Ivan Miklos about the confirmed fines he levied to the court and its president due to thwarted audit and the preparation to lodge criminal motions against Supreme Court Stefan Harabin. The Supreme Court repeated in its statement that it would allow an audit at the court performed by the Supreme Audit Office. „Inspectors of the Supreme Audit Office can enter the Supreme Court even in an hour. The doors are forever closed for SDKU politician Mr. Miklos and his people,” reads the statement of the Supreme Court’s press and information department.
The Finance Ministry announced on Thursday that is preparing a motion it will file against Harabin and will lodge a complaint with the General Prosecutor’s Office and the Police Presidium, informed Miklos on Thursday. Miklos has previously stated that Harabin might have committed the crime of the abuse of a public offical’s power by having repeatedly rejected a Finance Ministry’s audit at the Supreme Court.
On Thursday, the finance minister signed and thus confirmed the effectiveness of a fine of EUR 33,000 for the Supreme Court and EUR 1,000 for its president. On Wednesday, the deadline for the court to eliminate the reasons for the issued fine expired without response from the court, according to Miklos. The court now has fifteen days to appeal the fine. Miklos confirmed that until now, no institution rejected a governmental audit by which the ministry controls the effectiveness of use of public funds. The situation at the Supreme Court, where its president refuses to allow the ministry’s audit, is a precedent, according to Miklos.
For two weeks, the Ministry of Finance has been trying to start an audit approved by Finance Minister Ivan Miklos for the Supreme Court, but Harabin repeatedly would not allow it. First, he claimed that the inspectors did not have the correct date on the mandate since they came on another day than stated in the mandate, even though the Supreme Court had asked to change the date of the audit. Harabin later started rejecting the governmental audit completely as he thinks that only the Supreme Audit Office has the authority to audit the Supreme Court. The Finance Ministry audited effectiveness and lawfulness of the use of public funds at the Supreme Court during Robert Fico’s Cabinet in 2007 and 2009. Constitutional Court Chairwoman Ivetta Macejkova explained that both the Finance Ministry and the Supreme Audit Office have the right to audit the Constitutional Court every year. Slovakia’s Ombudsman Pavol Kandrac is also convinced that the Ministry of Finance has the right to audit the use of public funds by the Supreme Court.
SITA