Minister Richter (L) and Valentovič (source: SITA)
General Prosecutor Jaromír Čižnár officially submitted a complaint against the decision of the Labour Ministry not to scrap the accreditation of the Čistý Deň (Clean Day) resocialisation centre in Galanta, suspected of allowing the abuse of children.
“We have not identified with this action,” Čižnár told the MPs on June 20, as quoted by the Denník N daily, adding he cannot provide more details.
The Labour Ministry, which had refused to cancel the accreditation despite the recommendation of the accreditation committee, responded that it knows about the complaint.
“All we can say is that this started the proceedings for the prosecutor’s complaint,” the ministry told Denník N, adding it cannot say more at the moment.
At the same time, Labour Minister Ján Richter (Smer) refused to comment on the dismissal of two psychologists working for the Central Office of Labour, Social Affairs and Family (ÚPSVaR) who lost their jobs after being critical of the inspection and the situation at Čistý Deň.
“It is a matter for the ÚPSVaR’s personnel department,” Richter said, as quoted by Denník N.
ÚPSVaR’s head Marián Valentovič meanwhile said that the dismissal of the two psychologists had nothing to do with their critical statements. He stressed the office only cancelled the part-time jobs which had been announced long before they talked to the media. Thus, there was no reason to punish them for their statements, he claimed, as reported by the SITA newswire.
Valentovič added that all part-timers were offered a full-time job.
Psychologist Katarína Hatráková, however, says that the talks about the full-time job were only informal and that she was expecting a specific offer. She however was not aware of any firm offer of a full-time position, as reported by Denník N.
Both psychologists also say they had not known about the plans to remove their positions before they talked to the media.
