Opposition KDH MP and former justice minister Daniel Lipšic urged the governing coalition in parliament on February 5 to make all privatisation contracts public. He was speaking during a debate on a damning report on the 2002 privatisation of natural gas utility Slovenský Plynárenský Priemysel (SPP), a sale that was carried out by the current opposition parties while in government.
The KDH MP invoked a legal analysis that was drawn up while he was head of the Justice Ministry. This declared that the state is obliged under the Freedom of Information Act to publish privatisation contracts with the exception of secret details. Economy Minister Ľubomír Jahnátek backed Lipšic's call for the publication of contracts, adding that it should be included in a proposed resolution on the report currently under debate, the TASR newswire wrote.
The draft resolution castigates the first government of Mikuláš Dzurinda (1998-2002) for the manner in which it sold a 49-percent stake and management control of SPP to a consortium made up of Gaz de France and Germany's Ruhrgas.
SDKÚ-DS MP Pavol Frešo on February 5 submitted a resolution along with the Report on SPP Privatisation, and parliament supported it. Slovak MPs on February 5 acknowledged the Report on the Privatisation of SPP.
Through the resolution, MPs demanded that Prosecutor General Dobroslav Trnka investigate the process of the SPP privatisation, as well as the selection of the privatisation advisor. As well, the Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ) should officially look into the management of the state's financial resources and that of the National Property Fund in the process of privatisation. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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