Former environment minister to be sacked from public post for murky car hire

THE CHAIRMAN of the largely state-run Bratislava Stock Exchange (BCPB) managing board Jozef Medveď will likely have to leave his post after he was found to have abused his powers.

THE CHAIRMAN of the largely state-run Bratislava Stock Exchange (BCPB) managing board Jozef Medveď will likely have to leave his post after he was found to have abused his powers.

Medveď, who formerly served as environment minister in the previous government of Prime Minister Robert Fico for a brief period of time, has misused his post by hiring vehicles in the value of €19,900 from his own private company called Vanys, MP Miroslav Beblavý, head of the parliamentary committee for incompatibility of functions, informed on August 25, as reported by the TASR newswire.

Medveď is the only shareholder in the company Vanys, which is managed by his wife.

Beblavý informed the Economy Ministry (which controls almost 76 percent of the stake in BCPB) as well as Fico, requesting them to look into the issue and hold Medveď accountable.

“[The] chairman of the managing board may have misused his post in order to give preference to his personal interests over those of the public,” said Beblavý, as quoted by TASR, conceding that the Law on Conflict of Interest does not deal with companies for which the National Property Fund (FNM) is the majority shareholder.

“The only body that may draw political responsibility is the government, inter alia through bodies of the FNM,” added Beblavy.

The Economy Ministry confirmed later in the day that Medveď would be fired from his post.

“From the legal point of view, the law wasn’t violated,” the ministry’s spokesperson Miriam Žiaková said, as quoted by TASR. “Nevertheless, Economy Minister Pavol Pavlis views the situation as unethical, so after looking into the case, today he asked FNM chairman [Branislav Bačík] to present a proposal on dismissing the BCPB managing board chairman.”

Vanys won a tender against two competitors thanks to presenting the lowest bid, according to Žiaková.

Source: TASR

Compiled by Michaela Terenzani from press reports.
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information
presented in its Flash News postings.

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