PRIME Minister Robert Fico suggested at a business conference on October 30 that attempts have been made to corrupt him, but later reports showed that he has never turned to the police with such information.
Speaking at a meeting of the Klub 500 employers association, Fico said that "had I agreed at the very beginning with the proposed procedure in the case of [oil pipeline company] Transpetrol [which Slovakia is trying to buy back from the bankrupt Yukos], neither I nor 15 generations of my descendants would ever have to work again".
According to Fico, the political system in Slovakia produces large amounts of dirty money to enrich individuals and to finance political parties.
"This is a system that is able to produce billions of crowns, which is really dirty money," he said. "This government's problem is to decide whether to continue with the system that is already set up, or to dismantle it step by step."
Svetlana Husárová, spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Office, said that "it is the civic duty of the prime minister to file a criminal charge if he has any such information".
However, Fico's spokeswoman, Silvia Glendová, told the Sme daily that the PM had not turned to the police because he faced so many such bribery attempts. If he were to act on each one, she said, "he would be filing charges from morning till evening".
- Tom Nicholson
