The non-governmental organisation Slovak Governance Institute (SGI) compared Slovak prime ministers and the way they spend money from their reserve funds.
Mayors who are close to the ruling party or coalition are more successful when it comes to allotments from the prime minister’s reserve - regardless of whether the left wing or the right was in power, the Sme daily quoted the conclusions of the analysis. The NGO compared governments of Robert Fico, Iveta Radičová and Mikuláš Dzurinda.
The analysis also shows what the money was spent for. Under Radičová, funds from her reserve were directed mainly to areas hit by floods; while Fico rather supports repairs to local houses of culture or municipal offices and devotes more attention to sports.
Dzurinda says, however, that the political affiliation did not play a role in distributing money. Typical for Fico is that he always hiked his reserve before elections. Before the parliamentary elections in 2010, he increased his reserve by €1 million and spent it fully by June. When floods came, the state had to approve extra millions for repairing the damages (but also had to for Radičová). Before he announced the presidential candidacy by the end of 2013, Fico spent €7 million euros, instead of the originally planned €1.5 million, Sme wrote.
(Source: Sme)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
