The former AB Kozmetika building on Račianska Street in Bratislava, now converted into an apartment complex. (source: SME - Jozef Jakubčo)
When former interior minister Roman Mikulec attempted to address a housing shortage for police officers in Bratislava in 2023, his predecessor Denisa Saková was not impressed.
Flanked by Matúš Šutaj Eštok – now interior minister and head of the Hlas party – Saková (Hlas) publicly criticised a real estate swap that saw a derelict building exchanged for a renovated former cosmetics factory offering 50 apartment-style units. She questioned the need for what she called “luxury hotel rooms”, with units averaging 17 square metres.
Ironically, Šutaj Eštok later kept the plan and began filling the flats. One of the recipients: newly appointed deputy police chief Roman Gaťár, previously based in Topoľčany, western Slovakia. He was granted the building’s largest flat – 34 square metres – for a symbolic €10 monthly rent, plus utilities, according to Sme.
Gaťár’s colleague, deputy police chief Rastislav Polakovič, who earns €6,228 a month, has already lived in three state-provided flats since taking a leadership role in late 2023. Polakovič had previously worked in Stará Ľubovňa, eastern Slovakia. He started in a €10 unit, moved to a larger flat for €45, and most recently upgraded to a four-room flat with a terrace and parking for €159 monthly. Gaťár and Polakovič live in two different blocks of flats.
The ministry offers identical rents to all officers, regardless of rank or income. It is part of a strategy to attract police to the capital amid 3,700 vacant posts—an all-time high.
Still, criticism persists. Saková and Šutaj Eštok once argued that Bratislava’s housing crisis required far more than 50 flats for police officers. After taking office, Šutaj Eštok said the project would continue but that the police were investigating how the deal was made.
The ministry has yet to respond to questions from the daily.
Unlike her deputies, interim police chief Jana Maškarová has no state-provided housing. Previous chiefs, such as Peter Kovařík and the late Milan Lučanský, benefited from similar arrangements. Lučanský eventually bought his state-provided flat at a discounted €84,000 in 2015. After he left office in 2020, the state bought it back – for just €53,000.
