The Slovak Education Ministry is going to sue the country’s Public Procurement Office (ÚVO) in the upcoming days because it is publicly questioning the office’s professional skills, the SITA newswire reported.
“We considered its decisions absolutely incorrect and incompetent,” Education Minister Ján Mikolaj from the Slovak National Party (SNS) said following the government cabinet session on June 9.
The ÚVO appeals office confirmed a fine of over €140,000 levied on the Education Ministry a day earlier. The authority's spokesperson Helena Fialová said in response to
Mikolaj’s statements that her office abides by laws in making its decisions but the ministry has the right to turn to the judicial system. The fine was assessed in March for unlawfully selecting suppliers for a textbook order for over €2.8 million.
In June, 2008, the Education Ministry started negotiations with the publishing houses SPN - Mladé Letá and AITC for printing and re-release of selected textbooks that had been printed in previous years. The Public Procurement Office fined the ministry for applying an exception to the law on public procurement, which applies only to acquisition of library books but not to purchase of textbooks.
Source: SITA
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
