THE CHRISTIAN Democratic Movement (KDH) announced on December 4 that they have begun collecting signatures in parliament to initiate a no-confidence motion in Transport, Construction and Regional Development Minister Ján Počiatek for what they call a shady tender organised by the National Highway Company (NDS).
The tender concerns verifying payments with so-called fuel cards for road tolls. According to KDH, the winner of the bid has secured incomes amounting to €135 million over 13 years by collecting 6.15 percent of each payment.
“This is several times as much as collected by banks for payments with credit cards,” said KDH Vice Chairman Pavol Zajac, as quoted by TASR, adding that Paywell presented the bid in the tender only one day after it was founded and that the tender was “tailor-made for a certain company that is running the service without any competition and it’s called Fleetpay”.
The tender as such was won by Paywell, but references on its behalf were provided by Fleetpay company, which had been providing this service since the tolls were launched. It was given the contract from the state without a tender, a fact that was criticised by the European Commission. The EU then launched proceedings that were halted after the new tender that saw the eventual victory of Paywell was announced, said Zajac.
“We have a serious suspicion that the other company that took part in the tender was also backed by Fleetpay,” said Zajac, as quoted by TASR, adding that both Paywell and Fleetpay seem to be only shell companies with unknown owners.
According to Počiatek, KDH MPs haven’t been able to provide any evidence to back their claim that the tender was tailor-made for a single company.
The Public Procurement Office (ÚVO) will inspect NDS for the tender on the initiative of NDS and Transport, Construction and Regional Development Minister Ján Počiatek, NDS General Director Milan Gajdoš said November 28.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Roman Cuprik from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
