BRATISLAVA, August 18, (WEBNOVINY) — Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Ivan Miklos signed a motion against Supreme Court President Stefan Harabin concerning a suspicious that he may be committing a criminal offense of abuse of power. The Finance Ministry lodged the complaint with the Police Corps Presidium and the General Prosecutor’s Office on Wednesday. According to the filed motion, the Supreme Court president repeatedly did not honor his duty as stated in the law on financial and internal audits; he repeatedly did not enable or he actively prevented a government audit at the court that was to be carried out by the Finance Ministry. This suggests that the court president used his powers in contradiction with the law. Repeated obstructions by Supreme Court president to prevent an audit at the court raise suppositions that Harabin wants to conceal the fact that public funds at the court have been used in contradiction with the law and thus causing damage to the state, asserts the Finance Ministry’s statement to SITA.
For two weeks, the Ministry of Finance has been trying to start an audit approved by Finance Minister Ivan Miklos at 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 the effectiveness and lawfulness of the use of public funds at the Supreme Court during the term Robert Fico’s government 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