Bratislava Mayor Milan Ftáčnik told media on January 19 that he believes there may have been embezzlement at the Bratislava Waterworks Company (BVS) because the volume of water produced by the company has increased but the amounts invoiced have been decreasing.
Ftáčnik said BVS General Director Daniel Gemeran and his management team bear responsibility for the worsening economic status of the company of which Bratislava City is the majority shareholder.
"I find it necessary to have General Director Gemeran dismissed. Hence, I want to appeal to the Board of Directors to dismiss the General Director," said Ftáčnik, as quoted by TASR.
Ftáčnik also said Gemeran had ordered the sale of thousands of hectares of BVS land but the move did not translate into higher revenue in any way. Ftáčnik said a decision passed by BVS’s Supervisory Board on December 17, 2010 to increase severance for top management was the "last straw", adding that "the severance for the General Director increased by €50,000".
BVS spokesman Zenon Mikle told TASR that Ftáčnik’s statements about BVS have no substance and are not true. Mikle said the company's revenue has been decreasing since 2007 because of bad rules on price regulation, a problem experienced by waterworks companies across Slovakia. The BVS spokesman also rejected Ftáčnik's claims about the sale of thousands of hectares of BVS land saying that the relations between BVS and its daughter company Infra Services are proper and mutually advantageous.
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.
