The Slovak parliament’s mandate and immunity committee unanimously agreed on June 27 that Speaker of Parliament Pavol Paška from Smer party will not face disciplinary proceedings for what one opposition party called a forgery of the date of delivery of a legislative proposal to parliament’s registry office, the TASR newswire reported.
“The committee has stated that the issue isn’t subject to disciplinary powers of the mandate and immunity committee and has cast aside the proposal. It was a unanimous decision,” said committee chairman Miroslav Číž from Smer, as quoted by TASR. He added that the committee ordinarily deals with MPs’ statements, voting on behalf of another MP, and examines whether an MP took their oath in line with the law. Disciplinary proceedings may result into a financial fine of €166.
Paška allegedly changed the date of an electronic confirmation of the draft bill’s registration that first had the date of April 18 but four days later was changed to April 17, which was the deadline for delivering bills to parliament for the next agenda.
"It was not submitted in time," stated the chairman of Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party, Richard Sulík, as quoted by the SITA newswire. The April 17 delivery date made it possible to include the legislation on parliament’s agenda and dealt with boosting the state's powers in regulating natural gas prices.
The accusation against Paška was raised by a member of the mandate and immunity committee, Martin Poliačik of SaS, who did not attend the most recent session because he was out of the country. Poliačik, along with the entire SaS caucus, claimed that Paška changed the date to allow the bill to be discussed in parliament earlier.
Paška stated that he was accused falsely and via his spokesman, Pavel Chovanec, said that the actual date on the Central Electronic Registry proves him right.
Source: TASR, SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
