With its decision not to reimburse the costs of the so-called noticeboard tender to Slovakia, the European Commission has convicted the Slovak Government of fraud, SDKU-DS vice-chair Ivan Miklos said at a press conference in Bratislava on Wednesday.

Miklos was reacting to Brussels' decision, announced by Nicholas Martyn from the Commission's Directorate General for Regional Policy (DG Regio) following a meeting with Slovak Construction and Regional Development Minister Igor Stefanov on Tuesday. The Commission sees the problem in how the tender was executed, and said that Slovakia had violated the EU regulations pertaining to tenders.

"Prime Minister Robert Fico's Government robbed the citizens - the taxpayers - of approximately €11 million," said Miklos. According to him, the EC only confirmed what has already been pointed out by the Opposition and the Slovak media - that the tender, announced by the Construction Ministry, was 'published' only on a noticeboard at the Ministry and the process of public procurement was non-transparent, overpriced and paid only in part - and the state budget were also involved.

Despite the fact that the Ministry cancelled the contract with the consortium of companies Zamedia and Avocat that are close to SNS leader Jan Slota, whose party controls the ministry, SDKU-DS calls on Fico to dismiss Construction Minster Igor Stefanov from his post. According to Miklos, Stefanov (formerly a senior ministry employee) undoubtedly bears political responsibility for the tender, even if he was only a ministry official at the time and the Premier already dismissed his predecessor Marian Janusek over to this scandal.

(TASR, SLOVAKIA TODAY / Illustration photo)