THE PREVIOUS government spent more than €500 million during its last three months in office, Prime Minister Robert Fico told a press conference, adding that he viewed this as “wasting money and one of the reasons why Slovakia’s state deficit has grown”, the SITA newswire reported.
“It is like getting a white elephant in the form of a deficit; something we would not wish to any government,” Fico stated, as quoted by SITA.
Fico said his government has information about waste at some specific ministries and that all contracts signed between October 2011, when the government of Iveta Radičová fell, and March 2012 will be reviewed, including contracts for goods, construction work and services.
The state budget deficit rose to €1.155 billion in the first quarter of 2012. At the end of February the deficit was €846 million and the deficit at the end of March was €500 million higher than in March 2011. State revenue at the end of March had dropped by 10.3 percent year-on-year to €2.468 billion and expenditures rose by 6.3 percent year-on-year to €3.623 billion, SITA wrote.
