The Defence Ministry violated the law on public procurement when procuring aviation systems worth €1.3 million.
The ministry made the agreement over the systems with the Willing company and its sub-supplier, company R-Sys, directly. It did not publish any legal conditions, nor prove that they had been met, a report by the Public Procurement Office (ÚVO) suggests.
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The inspection revealed two other wrongdoings. The ministry did not reveal the results within 48 hours after concluding the contract. It also did not submit original documents of the given public procurement procedure. However, these did not have an impact on the procurement's outcome, the TASR newswire reported.
In addition, Ján Hoľko, who was an executive manager of R-Sys at the time, now works as the general secretary of the Defence Ministry's personnel department. He has refused any links to the contract, however, TASR wrote.
The ministry also carried out an inspection
The Defence Ministry accepts the results of the inspection. Its spokesperson Danka Capáková said that the order was assigned in 2012, i.e. when the ministry had different management, as reported by TASR.
The ministry also conducted its own internal control of the procurement. It did not check the procedures but rather whether the money was spent efficiently. No deficiencies have been found in this respect, which has also been confirmed by ÚVO, Capáková added.
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The ministry also stressed that it provided all documents concerning the 2012 procurement, which it has at its disposal, to the National Criminal Agency (NAKA) and ÚVO.
“We want to stress that we do not have the originals of documents, which would not be handed to ÚVO,” Capáková said, as quoted by TASR.
She also rejected the claim that the current management would make any mistakes or violate the law.
At the same time, the ministry voiced a suspicion that aformer employee of the military aviation authority, Maroš K., could have shredded the documents or dispose of them in a different way, as reported by TASR.
However, it was Maroš K. who pointed to the contract and informed the Supreme Audit Office (NKÚ). Meanwhile, NAKA launched an investigation of the case concerning the suspicion of machination in the public procurement and auction.
