Archive of articles - October 2009, page 14

EC delegation visits Roma settlements

A DELEGATION from the European Commission (EC) led by deputy Director General for Regional Policy Katarína Mathernová visited Roma settlements in Košice, Banská Bystrica and Bratislava at the end of September. The visit was meant to review significant investments from the EU to support the Roma community in Slovakia.

Judiciary racked by turmoil

JUDGE Jana Dubovcová has never hid her opinions about the state of the judiciary in Slovakia and its top representative, Štefan Harabin. Earlier this year, she supported a campaign run by a political ethics watchdog seeking to prevent Harabin’s election as Supreme Court President. She did not sign a letter prepared by 15 Slovak judges charging that disciplinary proceedings were being used against some judges as a tool of intimidation only because she thought that the letter was addressed to the wrong people. The judges sent their letter to the president, prime minister and speaker of parliament hoping to find a sympathetic ear. But Dubovcová, a Banská Bystrica district court judge, suggested in an op-ed published in the Sme daily on September 9 that she held these three officials partially responsible for the current condition of Slovakia’s judiciary.

Seeking the point of deviation?

“A tormenting thought: as of a certain point, history was no longer real. Without noticing it, all mankind suddenly left reality; everything happening since then was supposedly not true; but we supposedly did not notice. Our task would now be to find that point and as long as we did not have it, we would be forced to abide in our present destruction.” Elias Canetti.

Adjusting business to the current climate

THE AUDITING business has faced a number of challenges since the “dot com” era of the late nineties and the current economic crisis is yielding even more. In response, auditing firms are concentrating on truly understanding their clients' business and developing more efficient ways to do their imortant work, even with reduced budgets.

Slovakia’s health-care system worsens

SLOVAKIA’s position among European health-care systems has gotten worse this year. The European Office for the Protection of Patients reported that according to the results of the 2009 Euro Health Consumer Index (EHCI), Slovakia’s position dropped by six places to the 28th among the 33 countries, the SITA newswire reported.

No extra money to fill municipal coffers

REGIONAL governments and municipalities will not receive 100 percent of the income taxes paid by private individuals as they had hoped.

The adventures of a Slovak police commander

A COUPLE of weeks ago, the literary editor of London’s Independent newspaper, Boyd Tonkin, wrote a column discussing Simon Mawer’s novel The Glass Room, which charts the history of the former Czechoslovakia through the occupants of a house in Brno. Tonkin was optimistic that the critically acclaimed book might shine a light on the art and literature of the surrounding countries, all but ignored by the English-speaking world.

Quote of the Week:

“After all this even the biggest optimist is probably stripped of his hope that we’ve got a functioning system here that can find the offenders and prove them guilty.”

Tax revenues are lower than planned

SIX-MONTHS of tax revenues flowing into the state budget lagged behind projections by 25 percent. The Slovak government’s tax revenues collected between January and June this year amounted to €3.7 billion, only 75 percent of the planned revenue. The Slovak Tax Directorate reported on September 21 that there was €1.242 billion less in the state’s coffers than had been projected in the budget, the SITA newswire wrote.

New books in English

The Lost Symbol. Dan Brown. The Random House Group, 2009

Enemy Deed of the Year announced

THE NON-GOVERNMENTAL Open Society Foundation presented the results of its INFOčin of the year contest on September 28, which monitors positive and negative examples of the implementation of the Freedom of Information law, the SITA newswire reported.

UNITAS system to bring big changes

THE SYSTEM for collecting taxes and social insurance contributions will change significantly in Slovakia in the coming years. The plan encapsulated in the acronym UNITAS is to unify the collection of taxes, social and health insurance contributions as well as customs duties into a single system.

Budget plan sails easily through

FINANCE Minister Ján Počiatek had been rather secretive about most details of his draft state budget but it sailed through the cabinet meeting of Prime Minister Robert Fico’s government with an ease quite untypical for such plans.

Professionals in tax and audit

Turany, Bölleny? Slovak ox wins

TURANY, a village in the Turiec region, is one of the oldest settlements in the territory of today’s Slovakia. It seems that its long history is suggested also by its name - tur, an ancient type of ox that lived in the surrounding woods but became extinct in the early Middle Ages.

Lajčák arrives in Belgrade to discuss European integration

The situation in the Balkans, European integration and bilateral relations will be discussed by the Slovak Foreign Affairs Minister, Miroslav Lajčák, and his Serbian counterpart Vuk Jeremic in Belgrade on October 2, TASR was told by the ministry's spokesperson, Peter Stano.

NGO calls for resignation of head of Statistical Office

The Slovak Governance Institute (SGI) is calling on the chair of the Slovak Statistics Office, Ľudmila Benkovičová, to resign based on what the institute calls the office's incompetence and political bias under her leadership, it was announced on October 1 and reported by the TASR newswire.

Judges to unveil letter criticising current state of the judiciary

At least 105 judges, who feel that there is a lack of judicial independence, have signed an open letter criticising attempts of judicial authorities to penalise judges for their public statements regarding the state of the country's justice sector, said three of the participating judges at a press conference on October 1, the TASR newsire wrote.

Paper mill in Štúrovo to end production

The company Smurfit Kappa Štúrovo,a member of the Smurfit Kappa Group, announced the end of production in its Štúrovo-based paper mill. The planned shutdown is linked with excess production capacities for corrugated cardboard in the European market in combination with the global economic downturn, resulting in a recent significant decline of demand.