PRIME Minister Robert Fico intends to accuse the former leadership of the Cargo rail transport company today of defrauding the state of millions of crowns by selling public property for far less than it was really worth.
While Transport Ministry officials have hinted for weeks that charges are in the works, claiming that hundreds of wagons and locomotives were sold for below-market prices, they have refused to provide details, saying it had been agreed the prime minister would make the announcements.
The revelations are part of a campaign to paint the previous government as deeply corrupt, and parallel other investigations of contracts signed by the STV public channel, the Defense Ministry and the Interior Ministry under the Dzurinda government.
The far-right SNS party also plans to announce, through its nominee at the Construction Ministry, a series of corrupt doings by the former leadership of the ministry, which was nominated by the ethnic-Hungarian SMK party, including public procurement irregularities and suspect rentals of buildings.
A week ago, Fico said that the list of economic wrongdoing by the previous government was “endless”.
