BRATISLAVA, April 12, (WEBNOVINY) — “Miloslava Zemkova can not return her severance pay, as there is nowhere to return it to. It was paid from the Slovak Radio (SRo) budget, not the Slovak Radio and Television (RTVS). She can only donate it and that’s what she did,” said Alexandra Stullerova-Korenova of the RTVS public relations department. Korenova replied to Parliament Speaker Richard Sulik (SaS) who asked the former SRo head to return the severance pay she received after leaving the SRo director general post to head RVS, as he sees no moral right for receiving it. Zemkova became head of the public broadcaster RTVS after a merger of SRo and STV. It is not known, to whom she donated the money.
Zemkova received severance pay worth three months’ salary and a bonus when leaving SRo. According to Sulik, the bonus is all right “She deserves this payment, she managed the radio for several years with proper professionalism and honor. The results that the radio showed cannot be compared to the results of STV. My personal opinion is that Mrs. Zemkova definitely deserves the bonus for her work at SRo. If the decision was up to me, I would definitely sign such a bonus,” explained Sulik at a press conference this Tuesday. However, he thinks that the severance pay may provoke too many questions, especially in the case when Zemkova is the head of SRo’s successor institution.
On Monday, Culture Minister Daniel Krajcer (SaS) said that this is an issue for the RTVS Council, which is legally competent to deal with similar issues. “You surely know that the Culture Minister does not manage this institution and he neither manages this institution’s director general,” he added. RTVS Council Chairman Miroslav Kollar told SITA that he first needs to obtain more information on the contract, based on which were the money was paid. The Council might discuss Zemkova’s bonus and severance pay this Thursday, although this topic was originally not scheduled.
According to the information that SME daily brought, Zemkova received approximately 30,000 euro: a severance pay based upon the SRo collective agreement worth four monthly salaries and a bonus worth three monthly salaries.
SITA