BRATISLAVA, October 14, (WEBNOVINY) — Prime Minister Iveta Radicova said on Thursday that today ends the system of trial and error in her Cabinet. Simultaneously, the probation period ends of new Cabinet ministers and other officials. „We have passed a period of searching, setting rules of the game, a period of stress under time pressure and dissatisfied citizens to prepare the state budget. Now starts a standard period of preparation of laws, dialogues, and seeking solutions. We are armed with courage and will to be responsible. I am prepared to take this responsibility,“ Prime Minister said at a press briefing convened to evaluate the first hundred days of the current government.
Radicova spoke about several measures her government proposed during the first hundred days in office. The government respected the decision of Constitution Court on the Law on Social Services which was non-executable. Her government has cancelled the requirement to have a recommendation from a general practitioner to visit a specialist doctor and set caps on spending on medicaments for vulnerable groups. „We are preparing transformation of hospitals. Similarly as we needed to recover banks, we need to recover hospitals. We have handed them over in year 2006 without debts and now we took over them with massive debts,“ she said.
According to the Prime Minister, her Cabinet had to prepare the state budget right after they got into office, which is usually being prepared since April. They had to deal with various contracts at ministries and simultaneously the situation with increasing debts of Slovakia. „The state budget was a test for us,“ she added.
Radicova and her team made organizational and personal changes at the Cabinet Office. „We have laid off fifty employees and replacement the management,“ she said. They also cancelled the system of awarding of employees during holidays, when they trained their own colleagues, cancelled approximately twenty contracts which represents saving of more than 3 million euros. Those were, for example, contracts on organizing celebration or improving qualification of employees of the office. The Cabinet Office increased transparency by publishing contracts on the Internet. According to Radicova, two working times each day to what she had taken over from the former government to sort out of system. „Calling it chaos would be a compliment,“ she said.
According to Prime Minister Radicova, the government will behave responsibly and wants to prepare ground so that nobody will have to announce awkward news to the public in the future. „I can feel the dissatisfaction of many citizens. I am not indifferent. Having an idea of how to manage the country is one issue and trying to manage a recovery process is another. It requires a lot of strength not to give up, resist pressure of lobby groups, [the people] around, and media,” she said. The ambition of her government, according to the Prime Minister, is to repay Slovakia’s debt. This is spread over three years. She pointed out that her government took over Slovakia with a massive debt. Already this year, her government will already be able to save EUR 360 million.
SITA
