Supreme Court Chief Justice Štefan Harabin, who has been preventing auditors from Slovakia’s Finance Ministry from conducting an audit at the court for several weeks, is maintaining his position that such an audit can only be conducted by Slovakia’s Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ), the TASR newswire reported.
Harabin's view is that this is the only way to guarantee the objectivity of the audit, the Supreme Court’s press department said in a statement delivered to TASR on Sunday, October 3.
Harabin drew a parallel between the case involving the Hayek Consulting firm (a right-wing think-tank that purportedly received a government contract while its owners had government positions) and that of the Supreme Court. Harabin noted that it is the NKÚ which is examining the possibility of fraud in the Hayek Consulting case and wonders why the Supreme Court – which is not suspected of any wrongdoing – cannot examine the court as well.
Harabin said that there is a double standard of justice and objectivity, stating that the suspects in the Hayek Consulting case are entitled to objectivity but not the Supreme Court.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
4. Oct 2010 at 14:00
