Prime Minister Iveta Radičová has said that after taking office earlier this month she found that most of the funds in the prime minister’s reserve had already been spent during the first half of 2010. Radičová became prime minister earlier this month, after former premier Robert Fico lost the general election held on June 12.
Speaking after a government session on Wednesday, July 21, she said that to the best of her knowledge out of €25 million there is only €2 million left.
“We are now looking at what has been hastily pledged under contract so that we dispatch these funds targeted at flood victims,” she said, as reported by the TASR newswire.
Radičová explained that she is now in the process of delivering on pledges she made during a working trip last week to flood-hit towns and villages in eastern Slovakia. She first approved aid for the hardest-hit municipality, Nižná Myšľa, where landslides following heavy rainfall on the night of July 4 damaged more than 40 houses, including 26 that have had to be torn down.
Radičová vowed to distribute funds from what remains of the prime ministerial reserve to cover those pledges which address the most urgent needs.
Back in June then-prime minister Fico denied allegations that he had spent all the prime ministerial reserve, describing the reports as a fabrication and stating that he had not used even half the funds.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
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