PRIME MINISTER Iveta Radičová, who is also the current acting defence minister, has decided that Ľubomír Repčík, the chair of the board of directors of the VOP Nováky military maintenance company, plus all members of the state-run firm’s supervisory board, will be dismissed, the Sme daily reported.
“VOP failed to secure the validity of loan contracts and concluded an invalid mortgage contract,” the prime minister stated, as quoted by the SITA newswire on January 10. Moreover, according to a statement released by the press department of the Government Office, “the procedure of the management of VOP Nováky has been at odds with the law and the statutes of the military company”.
The decision came after controversial loans and mortgages by VOP came to light in reports published in Sme on January 4.
The state-run joint-stock company reportedly borrowed €70,000 from Sitno Holding, a company owned by Ľudovít Černák, who was economy minister during the first government of Mikuláš Dzurinda, so that the firm could pay employee wages. VOP Nováky also mortgaged a portion of its assets to Černák’s firm, the daily wrote.
According to the mortgage contract, Sitno Holding would be able to sell one of the company’s four production halls and nine ammunition warehouses if the loan were not repaid.
However, documents submitted by Repčík to the Government Office as well to the Central Register of Contracts show that loan contracts concluded by VOP were not published in the central register, as required by the law, so have not technically come into effect.
