A RECORDING featuring a voice resembling right-wing politician Radoslav Procházka, which has recently appeared on the internet, contains statements that pertain to claims about murky financing of his presidential campaign. It also suggests that the campaign cost significantly more than the €250,000 he actually reported publicly, the Sme.sk website reported on July 22.
Speculations about the financing of Procházka’s campaign emerged in early June when Igor Matovič, chair of Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO), said Procházka attempted to purchase campaign ads from Matovič’s family-owned company, Regionpress, off the books.
The OĽaNO chair, who is also featured on the recording, confirmed its authenticity.
“It is the material I wanted to publish only after the approval of the general prosecutor, for which I am waiting,” Matovič said, as quoted by Sme.sk, adding he was surprised that it was published. “It obviously satisfies someone to deal with this issue in the middle of the summer when people are on holiday and do not watch politics.”
In the recording, the voices resembling Procházka’s and Matovič’s discuss how to pay for an advertisement in a newspaper belonging to Matovič’s family. The alleged voice of Procházka says he wants to pay only half officially and the other half unofficially, since “in such volume there is simply no one to check it”, as reported by Sme.sk.
The voice later says that the share is not important, and that he is willing to accept having 90 percent of the sum going unregistered. The two voices also discuss publishing spending on the campaign on a transparent account and whether the ad has to be reported to the Finance Ministry.
The recording also deals with the total spending on Procházka’s campaign. The voice resembling Procházka’s assesses that it would cost about €500,000, which is only half of the officially admitted sum, Sme.sk wrote.
Matovič told journalists in June that the actual price for the services Procházka wanted to pay for amounted to €17,200 with VAT. The ads were to be published in an advertising newspaper delivered to households around Slovakia free of charge. Matovič then called on Procházka to take a lie detector test to prove the contrary.
Meanwhile, Matovič himself took a lie detector test, which he said was administered by an independent company selected by the Nový Čas daily. Nový Čas prepared the questions, which Matovič knew in advance. Procházka then said he would also undergo a test, but later skipped it.
Source: Sme.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.
