President Andrej kIska onboard a plane, illustrative stock photo. (source: Sme)
Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák said last autumn he had issued invoices to President Andrej Kiska for his flights to the latter’s hometown of Poprad where his family lives, the Sme daily wrote. Kaliňák accused Kiska of not paying the invoices, while the president retorted that he was offered to use the plane instead oft travelling the distance almost across all Slovakia by car.
More recently, the Christian Democratic Youth (KDM) asked the Interior Ministry to provide the invoices to Kiska, Prime Minister Robert Fico and Speaker of Parliament Andrej Danko for using the Interior Ministry’s planes.
The Interior Ministry answered the question, forced to do so by the Information Act, that they have not issued any invoices to Kiska. The ministry replied the KDM that they cannot provide these invoices since they have not issued them at all, Sme wrote on January 31.
Under current legislation, top constitutional officials use government planes for free, paying only for food and drinks.
Disprepancy between minister’s and ministry’s claims
As recently as this month, Kaliňák claimed the ministry had issued the invoices but cannot show them since they have been cancelled.
The ministry explains this discrepancy by stating that it had sent the invoices to Kiska’s firm instead of the President’s Office. “If the president wants to pay the invoices for private flights to Poprad the Interior Ministry can happily issue them additionally,” ministry spokesman Petar lazarov said, as cited by Sme.
Experts say that even if these invoices were cancelled, the respective documents have to be archived for at least 10 years and cannot be annulled without any notice.
