BRATISLAVA, April 15, (WEBNOVINY) — Prime Minister Iveta Radicova hails that the Nitra Invest company has withdrawn from the scandalous contract on the lease of a building for tax offices in Kosice. The Tax Directorate was to pay almost EUR 6.6 million to the company Nitra Invest of SDKU senior official Ondrej Scurka for over five years. After the controversial contract was revoked, entities interested can start forwarding their offers for a tax administration seat in the eastern Slovak metropolis. Radicova also initiated an audit at the Tax Directorate of the Slovak Republic by the Slovak Cabinet Office and asked Parliament Speaker Richard Sulik (SaS) to submit a proposal for a Supreme Audit Office inspection to the parliament.
Nitra Invest sent a written notice of the contract withdrawal earlier on Friday. Company owner Scurka wanted to avoid any doubts cast on the Iveta Radicova Cabinet, SDKU-DS or his person. To dispel any doubts on a transparent ownership, he agreed to a proposal by the minority partner of Nitra Invest, the Cypriot firm TPE Holding I, for a buyback of its 20-percent share. Scurka will thus be the 100-percent owner of Nitra Invest.
The liberal party SaS wants the building lease contract by the tax office in Kosice scrutinized by the Supreme Audit Office. “We consider it a vital condition, particularly in the case of a coalition government whose unquestionable priority is the battle against corruption and cronyism,” party leader Richard Sulik’s secretary Tatiana Tothova announced Friday. The party has suggested that SDKU-DS initiate the check in the parliament.
Independent Member of the Slovak Parliament Igor Matovic believes that Director General of the Slovak Tax Directorate Miroslav Mikulcik, a nominee of SDKU-DS, had misled Prime Minister Iveta Radicova, Finance Minister Ivan Miklos, reporters and the public in the case of a building lease for the tax administration in Kosice. Therefore, he should abdicate. Matovic dislikes the fact that the original rental contract with VHS Development had not been terminated as Mikulcik told the prime minister. The tax office ultimately rented the premises from a company owned by Ondrej Scurka who is the leader of the SDKU-DS district organization in Nitra.
At Friday’s briefing, Matovic rebuked Mikulcik for choosing the least transparent method to find a seat for Kosice tax offices, namely the market research. Matovic does not hold Radicova or Miklos politically responsible for the scandal. He thinks that the prime minister did not have sufficient information on the case. Matovic has decided to submit a blueprint altering the respective laws to avoid the repetition of the situation when a single person makes a decision on a contract worth hundreds of millions of crowns based on “some dubious market survey”.
Head of SMER-SD’s communication division Erik Tomas remarked that this was an unbelievably embarrassing attempt of Iveta Radicova to sweep the SDKU-DS deal under the carpet and desperate efforts to shift her and Miklos’ political responsibility onto an official. SMER has announced that if the prime minister does not recall Finance Minister Ivan Miklos from his post, they will demand convening a parliamentary session to hold a no-confidence vote on the prime minister.
SITA