THE SLOVAK police are investigating senior officers of the Slovak Information Service (SIS) for allegedly extorting bribes to arrange security clearances from the National Security Office (NBÚ) from 2003 to 2005.
It is alleged that a group of SIS officers in several cases withheld information from the NBÚ in favour of companies that were being audited to help them get the screening certificates. In turn the officers allegedly demanded bribes reaching hundreds of thousands of crowns, the Pravda daily wrote.
In other cases, companies allegedly paid SIS operatives to prepare negative evaluations of competitor firms to stop them from receiving screening certificates, which are needed to receive government contracts or to trade in weapons, for example.
Police spokesman Martin Korch said the anti-corruption unit was dealing with the issue but would not provide any further details.
Compiled by Martina Jurinová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
