Branislav Šafárik (source: TASR)
After more than a month since the TechMatch Slovakia 2015 conference, which made headlines due to alleged inflated costs, Branislav Šafárik resigned from his post as the general director of the Slovak Business Agency (SBA). The administration board of the semi-state organisation that organised the conference, acknowledged the resignation of Šafárik on November 24. He will be replaced by Martin Holák as of November 25, the TASR newswire reported.
“By resignation from the post I want to prevent further defamation of the name of SBA as well as my name,” said Šafárik, as cited by TASR. “By the resignation from the position as the SBA general director I simultaneously take over the managerial responsibility for realisation of TechMatch Slovakia 2015, for whose realisation I firmly stay.”
Šafárik hopes that after his resignation SBA will be able to continue in fulfilling its tasks without media pressure relating to the criticised conference.
“Economy Minister Vazil Hudák perceives the decision of the SBA general director as an expression of managerial responsibility,” Miriam Žiaková, minister’s spokesperson wrotre in response to Šafárik’s resignation.
The five-day TechMach Slovakia 2015 conference held between October 12 and 19, whose main aim was to help startups, faces criticism by the public, media as well as opposition parties for very high costs. SBA, as the organiser of the conference, claims that it has not violated any rules.
The Public Procurement Office will scrutinise the tender related to organising the TechMatch 2015 conference. The Economy Ministry is also making an audit of SBA.
