Members of parliament yesterday heard explanations of a hotly contested public procurement tender for 35 lightweight trains from PM Mikuláš Dzurinda, Transport Minister Jozef Macejko and Supreme Audit Office head Jozef Stahl.
Dzurinda said that a recent scandal over the tender was “a plot and an attempt to politically destroy me”. Macejko, whom Dzurinda has fired because he allegedly interfered with the tender on behalf of French trains firm Alstom, whose bid had been unsuccessful, said he had only done so because the offer the tender commission chose was Sk800 million more expensive than Alstom’s.
Meanwhile, a representative of the winning bidder, Stadler Bussnang of Switzerland, said in Bratislava that “in the past few weeks we have seen many politicians turn into railway experts, and it’s been very interesting. I hope that after [September parliamentary] elections this will continue, because in that case your railways have a great future.”
Compiled by Tom Nicholson from press reports.
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
