FORMER mayor of Košice František Knapík will probably face the Specialised Criminal Court soon for alleged machinations with the public procurements which took place during the time he was in office.
The court’s spokesperson Katarína Kudjáková confirmed for the Aktuálne.sk website that the lawsuit against Knapík has already been submitted.
The case goes back to 2009 when Košice was searching for an external advisor over the purchase of buses with EU funds. The main criterion of the competition should have been the price. The police however said that the company which won the competition with an offer of more than €67,000 did not submit the best bid.
The agreement contains the attachment which significantly increased the reward for the advisor from tens of thousands of euros to hundreds of thousands of euros. Moreover, Košice promised to pay the Bratislava-based company 4 percent of the approved contribution from the EU funds. The results of the investigation suggest that Knapík signed the agreement despite a warning about the deficiencies, the website wrote.
The money was sent to the account of the company in 2010. This allegedly caused damages to Košice of more than €433,000.
Aside from Knapík, the former head of the strategy development department of the town hall also faces the lawsuit. Both could face 12 years in prison, according to Aktuálne.sk.
Both men however say they are not guilty.
“I do not know about any illegal conduct,” Knapík recently told the Korzár regional daily.
Source: Aktuálne.sk
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
