Parliament's Finance, Budgetary and Currency Committee is investigating a present worth Sk50,000 (€1,660) that it appears coalition member HZDS received from oil company Transpetrol in 2007, committee chairman Jozef Burian (Smer-SD) told the TASR newswire on July 31.
Burian said that the committee would first verify and identify the company that gave the gift. If it turns out that it is a company partially or wholly owned by the state, the committee will decide how to sanction HZDS at its first session in September. Burian also indicated that the committee might approach the checking of parties’ annual reports differently in future.
However, Burian says, Sk50,000 is not as a huge sum, and he emphasised that Transpetrol is being controlled by a foreign company.
"We reject any speculation regarding the inter-connection of HZDS and Transpetrol, as the deed of gift was between Transpetrol and a district organisation of the party, not by the central office," party spokesperson Monika Zakariášová told the TASR newswire, adding that the party was looking into the matter. TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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