Archive of articles - December 2014, page 3
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Overpriced contracts infect health care
FOUR state-owned hospitals involved in the scandal tied to overpriced meals will have to pay two private companies for food deliveries and catering – even if they never make it to patients. Health Ministry officials say they are looking into the possibility of cancelling the contracts.
Police charge bribed doctor
THE POLICE charged Vladimír P., the head doctor of one of the departments at the Children’s Faculty Hospital and Policlinic (DFNsP) in the Bratislava borough of Kramáre for taking a bribe. He was arrested by the National Criminal Agency (NAKA) on December 15, the TASR newswire reported.
EC approves the scheme of state aid for minority culture
THANKS to the approval of the scheme of state aid issued by the European Commission, the Government Office will be able to complete the distribution of subsidies to national minorities to support their culture, the TASR newswire reported on December 16.
Getting in touch with homeless
WHILE Bratislava has hosted a homeless theatre festival the previous seven years, organisers and allied associations expanded the list of events this year in an attempt to raise even more awareness – launching the first ever Month Without a Home (Mesiac bez domova).
Private rail alters market
WHILE a private train company already operates in Slovakia, passengers had to wait until mid-December for real competition on Slovak rails. Czech private railway carrier RegioJet, already running trains on the regional route between Bratislava and Komárno, has launched rail transport on the busiest route in Slovakia – between Bratislava and Košice, just before the Christmas season, which is traditionally the busiest part of the year in transport. The competition has already brought lower prices and more services.
Reverse gas flow launched
PROBABLY the most visible measure of a €250 million social-economic package, which the cabinet of Prime Minister Robert Fico designed in 2014 to compensate Slovaks for recent years of austerity, is free rail transport. As of November 17 the group of people eligible for free rail transport was extended to nearly half of the nation while the number of trains was also increased. At the same time two Czech rail carriers entered long-distance rail transport in Slovakia, too. Among other topics hitting front pages of newspaper over 2014 were the efforts of Italian energy group Enel to sell its majority stake in the Slovak dominant power producer Slovenské Elektrárne and the launch of the reverse flow of the natural gas from Slovakia to Ukraine.
Kiska returned anti-shell law
PRESIDENT Andrej Kiska refused to sign the revision to the public procurement law, which is meant to ban shell companies from the public procurement process on December 18. He returned it to the parliament for another discussion.
November: The year in business
Slovak banks pass stress tests. Slovakia’s three biggest banks – Slovenská Sporiteľňa, VÚB and Tatra Banka passed the European Central Bank’s (ECB) financial health tests and will not need to raise additional capital.
Quote of the week
“Even those who proposed it admitted that the law will be ineffective.”
Christmas tram drives in Bratislava, St Nicolaus’ drove also in Košice
IT HAS become a pleasant tradition to send a festively-decorated Christmas tram onto the streets of Bratislava. On St Nicolaus’ day, December 6, a special tram was also dispatched with a “ticket collector” dressed as this historical person turned symbol - both in Bratislava and Košice.
Media ownership raises concerns
Big business made some consequential shopping decisions over 2014. Press freedom advocates and political ethics watchdogs expressed serious concern over the growing trend of large domestic media ownership.
Scandals
Scandals pertaining to the health care sector did not end with the dubious deal surrounding the dubious purchase of CT device. The Sme daily and Transparency International Slovensko (TIS) reviewed contracts of four large state hospitals in Trenčín, Banská Bystrica, Trnava and Poprad and found that they will pay external caterers nearly €81 million including VAT over the course of 10 years. After Sme ran the story, these overpriced catering contracts signed with mutually intertwined companies saw the heads of the state-owned hospitals forced out, along with the Health Ministry’s service office head Martin Senčák.
December: The year in business
Mochovce budget hike cleared. The Economy Ministry agreed to increase the budget on building two new reactors at the Mochovce nuclear power plant of Slovenské Elektrárne. Costs will balloon a further €830 million to €4.63 billion. The state owns a third of SE’s shares with Italian conglomerate Enel controlling the rest.
June: The year in business
E-Health plan postponed. People waiting for electronic services in health care will have to wait another year. The Health Ministry halted the competition over the system to secure, among other things, connections between hospitals and general practitioners’ clinics, and postponed the implementation of its e-Health project to 2017 over concerns that it might have to return some EU funds.
Referendum sparks rights discussions
Discussions about defining a family and LGBTI rights were the predominant human rights issues in 2014.
New Korean investor heads to Žilina
THE HUB of Korean companies clustered around the carmaker Kia Motors Slovakia near Žilina may extend. Žilina Mayor Igor Choma announced that it is 90 percent sure that Sungwoo Hitech will build its plant, with the price tag of €50 million, in Žilina. The investors are still in talks with the Czech Republic.
Judiciary gets new head
The single most significant change within the country’s judiciary over the past year is the failure of Štefan Harabin to get re-elected as the Supreme Court’s top chair. Supreme Court Judge Daniela Švecová replaced Harabin at the Supreme Court while another Supreme Court Judge Jana Bajánková, who failed in the first-round bid for Supreme Court head, now leads the Judicial Council.
July: The year in business
The change at the post of the economy minister. Halfway through his term, Prime Minister Robert Fico changed two of his ministers and a number of state secretaries. He offered no specific explanation for why Dušan Čaplovič was asked to quit as education minister and why Tomáš Malatinský would no longer serve as economy minister. The latter was replaced by Pavol Pavlis, thus-far state secretary of the Economy Ministry.
Kiska’s election changes landscape
IVAN Gašparovič, the one-time right-hand man of controversial three-time prime minister Vladimír Mečiar, ended his decade-long tenure and was replaced by Andrej Kiska, the first-ever independent candidate with no previous political background – not to mention the first president who was not once a member of the Communist Party.
A year of change
THE YEAR 2014 brought Slovakia its first ever president with no previous political background or one-time membership in the communist party, while preventing Prime Minister Robert Fico and his party Smer from controlling all key institutions: the government, the parliament and the presidential palace.
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