(source: SME)
The National Highway Company (NDS) will terminate cooperation with the company Process Management, which was involved in last year’s ferry scandal. It follows the instructions issued by Transport Minister Roman Brecely (Sieť) on August 15.
The minister also revealed that he had yellow carded NDS General Director Robert Auxt on the same day.
“I asked the NDS general director via an official request to find a way to terminate the cooperation with this company,” said Brecely, as quoted by the TASR newswire.
The Process Management company acquired notoriety by organising an overpriced tender on ferry service on behalf of the state-owned company Vodohospodárska Výstavba (Water Management Construction) during the era of the second Robert Fico government (2012-2016), with annual operation costs for the ferry service between Vojka-Kyselica on the Danube River racketing up from €1 million to €5 million as a result.
A press conference was held after MPs for Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO-NOVA) Veronika Remišová and Gábor Grendel informed earlier that day that NDS had recently posted in the Public Procurements Register details of a deal under which it will award a commission for consultancy services worth more than €2 million “as a gift” to Process Management without any tender, TASR reported.
The consultancy service concerns the introduction of a new European electronic road toll system. The two MPs consider the reasons stated as to why the consultant was not chosen in a transparent standard tender to be ridiculous.
They have therefore filed a complaint with the Public Procurements Office (ÚVO), but voiced doubts as to whether it will really investigate the case because ÚVO chair Zita Taborská was engaged in long-term cooperation with Process Management, TASR wrote.
“The company was involved in the ferry scandal and I, for one, can’t come to terms with that,” said Brecely, who believes the problem is not of a legal but rather moral nature.
He also pointed out that the company wanted to continue its cooperation with NDS while avoiding a transparent public tender.
“That, in and of itself, is a misstep in my book. I gave a yellow card to the director for that,” Brecely added, as quoted by TASR.
