The hospital in Piešťany (yellow building) (source: Michaela Terenzani)
The Special Prosecutor’s Office will deal with the investigation of the overpriced purchase of the CT scanner for Piešťany Hospital.
“The Special Prosecutor’s Office received the motion on the matter on May 3,” said its spokesperson Jana Tökölyová, as quoted by the TASR newswire. “The prosecutor will read the file and then decide on the next steps.”
Earlier this week, the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Trenčín ultimately halted the investigation into the purchase, claiming it was not a crime.
“After evaluating all the evidence, it was not confirmed that the public procurer knew about more effective and more economic alternatives of the public procurement or that the price of the procured item was deliberately overpriced,” said the prosecutor’s office spokesperson Marián Sipavý, as quoted by TASR.
The investigator pressed charges in the case in October 2017. One of the accused was former head of Piešťany hospital, Mária Domčeková.
The scandal resulted in the departure of several Smer politicians and the party’s nominees from their posts, including then-health minister Zuzana Zvolenská and then-speaker of parliament Pavol Paška.
