SPEAKER of Parliament Pavol Paška submitted a criminal complaint against MEP Richard Sulík of the Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party, Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OĽaNO) MP Igor Matovič and independent MP Daniel Lipšic for slander and libel with the Office of the General Prosecutor, the TASR newswire reported on November 12.
The complaint concerns the purchase of the overpriced CT scanner by the Piešťany hospital back in 2012. The hospital had announced a tender to purchase a CT Somatom Definition AS produced by Siemens in 2012 for roughly €1 million with VAT; however, after the ruling Smer party took control over the hospital, the management cancelled the deal and announced a new tender for a more expensive device.
The winner of the competition became Medical Group SK that offered a Philips Ingenuity Core 128 CT scanner for almost €1.6 million, which was €600,000 higher than the CT device from the cancelled tender, the Sme daily reported in late October.
The price is approximately three times higher than similar devices in the Czech Republic.
The scandal has already cost former health minister Zuzana Zvolenská and former deputy speaker of parliament Renáta Zmajkovičová, who led the supervisory board of the Piešťany hospital, their posts.
The opposition representatives claimed that it was Paška who was the real behind-the-scenes beneficiary of the deal.
“I was not even an MP 13 years ago, and I did not even expect I would become an MP when I had left,” Paška told journalists in early November, as quoted by the SITA newswire.
He stressed he started his business in 1990, but left in 2002. Paška also said that after he left the company the shareholders have changed for several times. He emphasised he has no reach on the current activities of the firm, SITA wrote.
It was Prime Minister Robert Fico who recommended Paška to pursue legal action against the statements made by the opposition.
Source: TASR, SITA, Sme
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
